An Ancient Squabble
by UGaVet
Summary: I'm not spoiling the surprise, LOL.  I'll just tell you right here that its an 8 way crossover with 5 genres.   Contains moderate Advancedshipping   ENJOY!:D  Updated to fix grammar errors


**An Ancient Squabble**

Please understand, i have been working on this for a long while. It's my ultimate project and i started posting it on . Of course i discontinued that for posting here. I apologize for lengthyness and the need for the censoring of some curse words. I'd prefer not risking getting this story removed and my profile suspended. This is an eight way crossover containing elements from all sources listed below this statement. The character i made are not listed below by the way. You have to find them out for yourself. This took forever to make and im not in the mood to organize it into multiple pages. it was a pain in the first place. The story being run through my head was good though. I'm proud of this achivement.

Before we begin, i want to let you all know that this post contains 70 chapters varying in length. You will not see a post of this length for this story again. Though you will be seeing plenty of different posts of varying lengths, all containing multiple chapters. I'm posting in volumes and will not divert to another method for this story. This is a novel, not some one-shot. Though i might do one. LOL! enjoy the story and finish chapters before you get off and record the one you left off on on a piece of paper. You'll want to be able to continue next time you get on if you dont finish the first time which i doubt you will.(not meant as an insult) The length of this is considered a bonus as a grand opening. Well, i think you heard me rant on enough so ill let you read the story. Just watch for the parts where characters dissapear for long periods of time without notice. Tell me about any typos too. Enjoy:)

Jackson: UGAVET!

Oh crap, I'm dead.

Jackson: I TOLD YOU THOSE EVENTS WERE TOP SECRET!

Not according to Lord Hood!

JACKSON: THAT'S IT!

CRAP I'LL BE BACK! ENJOY THE STORY AND HOPEFULLY ILL BE BACK WHEN YOU'RE DONE!

(Jackson aims a shotgun at UGaVet)

OH S**T!

(UGaVet takes off running as fast as he can)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the franchises, series, movies, or games involved in this title.

**Sources of some characters, techs, and creatures: **Halo, Star Wars, Alien vs. Predator, Outlander, Reign of Fire, Metroid, and (due to a bet) Pokémon (Apologies, I'll make it work.), Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II

**Genres:** Comedy, Action, Conflict, Horror, Tragedy, Romance

Characters not owned: Master Chief, Arbiter, Lord Hood, Kelly, Linda, Samus, Ash, May, Pikachu, Xenomorph (many of em'), Predator, Moorwen (many of em'), Drogoth the Dragon Lord, Flood (many), Space Pirates (many), Ridley, Admiral Dane, Forerunners, Tyber Zann, Urai Fen, (list incomplete)

**Message before story: **Dedicated to some very inspiring people in my life. One is Alex, my best friend from school. Thanks to Tyler; he is very supportive in my life and I always enjoyed hanging out with him and his dog. Thanks to my family for all the love and support up to this day. I especially want to thank my classmates for making school fun and interesting every day; a special thanks to the classmates who have always been friendly to me and been my friends when I needed friends. Special thanks to my online buddies from Games for Windows Live and (Halo fan site) for helping inspire this story. I couldn't have done it without you guys. Thanks everyone. And yes, thank you Mimi. If anything you're at least fun to argue with! :D (heavy, loud laughter) Enjoy. ;)

**CHAPTER 1**

It was a dark night, a man was driving as chauffeur for two young seventeen year olds, and the man wore a ragged brown leather jacket and a nametag with the name Jackson upon it. Jackson wore ragged leather jeans and bore a Medal of Honor pinned to his jacket. He was a war veteran retired from his latest military job as a 5 Star General in the UNSC. The weather outside the 2550 model Limo he drove was windy. In fact, it was too windy to match the area's climate. He was driving through the Southern District of New Mombassa headed down 5th Avenue. It was then when the man heard a siren and stopped on the side of the road to cut the engine and confirm what he was hearing. When Jackson did this, his fears were confirmed. The attack siren was sounding and the children in the back of the limo were starting to get scared.

The retired general decided then to pull the kids out of the car and get them away from the street. He pulled the girl out first. She was a brunette with a thick jacket and sweat pants to ward off the cold temperature. The boy was next. He had raven hair and carried something that Jackson could not place. It gave Jackson the feeling he was being watched and followed. The boy also wore a thick jacket of black leather and some sweatpants with white racing stripes down each side. Jackson pushed him to the girl and slammed the door.

"Run to the park I'll be right behind you," Jackson instructed to the children.

He then grabbed his rifle from the trunk and started at a run towards the park. It was then that a blue streak of white hot plasma struck the hood of the limo and sent it burning and flying towards the theater nearby. The explosion sent Jackson off of his feet. A bystander came and lifted Jackson off his feet.

"Are you ok?" the stranger asked. "I think so," replied Jackson.

Then two purple colored aerial vehicles turned the corner of the road on a low altitude sweep. The stranger pulled Jackson behind cover. The vehicles were like small pods with small stubby wings that had the propulsion devices placed at the tips. The vehicles were marked in the history books and were called Banshees. The vehicles passed Jackson and his new friend at high speed paying them no heed as they were hidden from view.

Jackson asked, "What's going on?"

"I have no idea," replied the stranger. "You must be Jackson," the stranger said.

"How did you know?" asked Jackson.

"One, the name tag, and two, it's the medal on your jacket," the stranger answered in a rather sarcastic tone.

"Oh. Who are you?" Jackson asked.

"Name's Alex. Could we save the formalities for later?" was his reply.

"Agreed. Come on we have to help those kids," Jackson informed.

With that they headed for the park. At the park they found the kids surrounded by short, stout creatures. The creatures were grunts. Jackson armed his rifle and fired taking out a grunt with every shot.

"Got em'," exclaimed Jackson.

"Nice shooting," complemented Alex.

They ran out to the kids when all the grunts were dead.

"Are you kids ok?" Jackson asked.

The girl was shivering badly. She was in shock apparently. They boy answered with a nod. More explosions were soon heard and two small, one man, hovering vehicles appeared. They were small, purple vehicles known in the history books as Ghosts. And around the corner behind them was a one wheeled vehicle with a sort of jet propulsion holding up the rear end. This vehicle was known in history as a Chopper. The three vehicles bolted straight toward Jackson and his companions. Unbeknownst to Jackson however, Alex was assembling something he had hidden in his pack the whole time. The item was a Spartan Laser with an upgraded hydrogen charge battery. He was done assembling it and fired at the enemy vehicles at full charge hitting the center vehicle dead on. The explosion destroyed the entire group. Jackson could only watch in awe.

"You're not the only one with tricks up his sleeve," Alex said.

With that they ran to cover on the other end of the park. It wasn't long before they ran into more opposition. Three tall, furry creatures walked around the corner of the building nearby. They were a bit ape like in appearance and they reeked. The girl's eyes were watering from the stench. They were spotted by the leader of the enemy group. The enemy charged firing white hot spikes out of their weapons as they ran. Three quick shots from Jackson's battle rifle put a hole in the head of each of the creatures, dropping em' dead. Then Jackson heard a female voice screaming. It was the girl that was following him. She was hit in the leg by one of the large needles that the enemy fired.

"What were those things?" the boy asked while trying to nurse his companion's wound.

"Brutes," Jackson replied blankly.

"We have to keep moving," Alex said.

Jackson looked around for something to help. He was in luck. He saw a trailer truck, and everyone knew they had high yield radios inside the cab. Jackson ran to the cab of the truck and was relieved to find the radio working. He keyed the radio on and switched to emergency military frequency.

"Hello? Can anyone hear me? This is Jackson Herman, retired 5-Star General of the UNSC. Can anyone hear me? I have three civilians with me, one is suspected to be an undercover Spartan. I need backup. The other two civilians are two seventeen year old teens. One is a boy and one is a girl. The girl is badly injured. She took a hit from a Brute Spiker in the left leg!"

It took a minute for a response to come through.

"Cool your jets Jackson. What's your location?" came the response.

"I'm in the South District of New Mombasa. I'm somewhere on Sixth Avenue and I'm in need of a med-evac ASAP!" Jackson answered in distress.

"Calm down Jackson we have a pelican en route to your location now. If you're an ex-general, you no doubt have a standard issue battle rifle with you correct?" the man said.

"Affirmative," Jackson replied blankly.

"OK then, you and your companions dig in and wait for evac. The pelican will be there in t-minus five minutes," the operator said.

"Thank you," said Jackson and he switched off the radio.

Jackson ran over to Alex and the kids and told them the news.

"Then we better find a place to hide," Alex informed.

"Agreed," Jackson said.

But where would they hide? That was answered when Jackson saw a dark alleyway. He motioned for the others to follow him and ran toward the hiding spot. They made it to the hiding place just in time. Two Scarab Tanks started walking by when they settled in. When the Scarabs passed, the group could hear a universally familiar sound: the engines of a pelican drop-ship. It sounded like it had a Hornet escort. That was confirmed when Jackson looked out onto the street to see a pelican landing and four ODST Hornets circling the landing point. Jackson sighed in relief.

"OK! EVAC'S HERE! LET'S GO!" he shouted to his companions over the roar of the pelican's engines.

They ran in and took off. A medic got straight to work on treating the girl's wound.

"Alex now is the perfect time to tell me why you had a SPARTAN LASER IN YOUR PACK!" Jackson screamed.

"I heard you talking on that radio when you mentioned your suspicions about me being a Spartan undercover. You are correct," Alex said.

"Sierra 121, your armor," a soldier said as he presented Alex with what was obviously his MJOLNIR Armor.

It looked like a Mark 8. Jackson heard the boy gasp in amazement. Though, the lack of total awe on his face said something about the boy's history. Jackson had the idea that this boy had seen a Spartan in armor at least once before. Jackson decided to question the boy but was interrupted by the pelican shaking.

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! STRAP YOURSELVES IN EVERYONE!" the pilot yelled back to the passengers.

Outside the pelican three Banshees and a teardrop shaped vessel known as a Seraph fighter were shooting at the pelican. Then, a Phantom, one of the bulbous drop-ships of the Covenant, flew in front of the pelican and cut them off.

"Sir, we can't make it back to base. We are taking the general to the Spirit of Fire and will contact you once we reach safety," the pilot said into the radio.

"Roger Bravo One, we will await Lord Hood's signal, base out," came the response.

This surprised Jackson slightly. The pelican then swerved and started to gain altitude as it headed for the refitted UNSC Battleship, Spirit of Fire.

**CHAPTER 2**

The pelican was still shaking as it breached the second layer of Earth's inner atmosphere. Two UNSC Longsword Fighters had cleared off the pursuit behind the pelican, but the pelican didn't come out undamaged. One of the engines was smoking, and two of the ODST hornets were shot down before the Longswords could arrive. The pelican shuddered as it docked with the Spirit of Fire, and the girl was rushed off to med bay. The boy was concerned about his friend so he followed the medical team and his companion to the med bay.

'He probably could use a medical check anyway,' Jackson thought.

Jackson and Alex were given an armed escort to the bridge. They reached the bridge and were given a warm welcome from Lord Hood.

"Sierra 121, welcome home. Your brothers were worried Alex," Lord Hood said.

"I'll go see them without delay while you talk to Jackson here," Alex said.

Alex was now in his MJOLNIR Mark 8 Armor. He seemed to have broader shoulders and was a h**l of a lot taller in appearance. The armor seemed heavy, but Alex didn't seem to care. The augmentations he got during his training must be paying off. Alex walked off the bridge and Lord Hood greeted Jackson with a crisp salute.

"Welcome back general," he said.

"I guess it's good to be back," Jackson said.

Lord Hood nodded as he ended his salute and motioned for Jackson to follow him to the forward viewport.

"Jackson, I know you retired for a reason. But the Call of Duty is now reaching to our oldest veterans," he started.

"I'm sure," Jackson replied.

They arrived at the viewport just before the ship shuddered and they jumped to the faster-than-light speed form of travel known as Slipspace.

"Now I'm about to ask you a huge favor Jackson. I want you to reactivate as a general." Lord Hood stated.

Jackson looked at him in surprise. He was hoping to be called back to duty. He didn't expect the call to come like this though.

"Sir I…," he started, unsure. He then regained his composure and said with meaning and dignity," I accept!"

Lord Hood looked at Jackson in surprise.

"Really?" he asked.

"Sir I have been waiting for a chance to kick **s on the battlefield. This is my opportunity. I hereby place a request for reactivation." Jackson said in his militaristic tone.

Lord Hood smiled and said," Permission granted, old friend," glad to see his buddy going back onto the field.

**CHAPTER 3**

In med bay, the boy was worried about his friend. He wore a light jacket with an orange stripe across his chest and a white shirt underneath. The boy's name was Ash. He was wearing some jeans to accompany his current attire. He refused a checkup until he was sure she would be OK. His other friend and companion had stowed away in one of the cargo compartments on the pelican. This other friend had been following Ash and his immediate companion via transmitter guidance. His injured friend was named May. He didn't understand the feelings he got when he was around her. It was foreign to him. He heard a clattering behind him and looked the other way to search for the source. This was done in vain. He didn't see the source of the sound. He turned back to his friend a little frazzled as the door slid open. In walked Alex in his MJOLNIR Mark 8 Armor. Ash looked at Alex, surprised that the visitor was a Spartan. Not to mention that this Spartan was with him during the escape from New Mombasa's Southern District. Along with a retired general named Jackson Herman. Ash was confused and still mulling over recent events.

"She ok?" Alex asked him snapping him out of his confusion.

"I'm not sure. The medics say she'll be fine but I'm not sure what to believe yet. I'm still shaken up by today's events," was Ash's lengthy response.

Alex only nodded and decided not to press the matter further.

"My name's Alex," he said.

"Ash," the boy responded.

They shook hands.

"Would you walk with me? We have to talk," Alex said.

Ash was rather frazzled, but he followed Alex out, however reluctant to leave his friend alone.

"What's her name?" Alex asked as they walked.

"Her name is May," Ash answered.

They turned down another hall to a viewport on the side and stopped to stare into the darkness of Slipspace.

"You seem to worry a lot about her," Alex said.

Ash hesitated.

"Well yeah, she's my best friend. We've been through a lot together," he said with a bit of stuttering here and there.

Alex looked at Ash and saw him looking away and blushing. This was a rather obvious hint to Alex that something was up. He didn't want to push further however so he changed the topic. It seemed uncomfortable to Ash at the moment to talk about his relationship with the girl.

"You know," Alex started," We won't be able to let you leave considering that you know about me now." Ash looked at him skeptical at this revelation.

Alex continued," You know too much." Ash looked down with a sad look on his face.

"There is one up side," Alex countered.

"Yeah? What's that?" Ash asked a little angry that he couldn't leave the UNSC at the moment.

"Have you ever met the Master Chief or the Arbiter?" Alex asked.

Ash nodded an affirmative.

"You will be traveling with me, General Jackson, and those legends," Alex finished.

Ash looked skeptical…and happy.

'I guess he likes the idea of traveling with Spartans, an Elite, and a general,' Alex thought.

"And of course, you can bring your girlfriend with you," he said.

Ash looked at him a bit angry and red faced.

'Oops,' Alex thought,' wrong choice of words.'

Ash however did only one thing: he walked off back to med bay. Alex just stood there scratching the back of his head and regretting his choice of words.

**CHAPTER 4**

Alex walked in to the Spartan Suite of the ship to find the Master Chief looking at him.

'He must have caught my conversation with Ash on the cams,' Alex thought.

"Nice choice of words you idiot," the Chief started," If Sergeant Johnson were here, he'd be calling you a j*****s."

"Ha ha, very funny," countered Alex. The Chief just sighed and slapped Alex upside the head before leaving the suite.

Alex felt even more like an idiot than he did five minutes ago when Ash stormed away from him.

**CHAPTER 5**

Ash walked into the med bay and entered May's room to find her awake and staring out the viewport. She was now in her favorite red light jacket and was wearing biker shorts too. Her bandana was in her hands.

"Hi," Ash said.

May jumped, startled at Ash's sudden greeting from behind her. She looked behind her and gave him a look.

"Sorry," Ash laughed, scratching the back of his head.

"It's ok," she said looking back out the viewport sighing as she did so. Ash sat in the chair next to her and saw a tear run down her cheek. He felt sorry for her. A knock on the door snapped him out of his sympathetic thought.

"Who is it?" Ash asked the person knocking on the door.

"It's Jackson," came the reply.

Ash looked at May to ask her if he should let him in but got the answer from the look on her face.

"Now probably isn't the best time General," He said turning to the door.

"I'll come back later then," Jackson said and walked off.

Ash turned back to May hoping her tears were gone but his hope for that was shattered. She was sobbing. He was so confused, and he felt so helpless. He decided to walk out but was stopped when May grabbed his wrist. He looked at her to see a pleading look on her face. She needed company from a friend. He stayed.

**CHAPTER 6**

Jackson stood next to his newly commissioned shuttle examining the hull while the work droid made some last minute adjustments to the craft. The Arbiter, Alex, and the Master Chief were talking at the edge of the hangar. Jackson was worried about the kids. He felt sorry for them because they were stuck traveling with him because of what they knew. He wished the Brutes had never attacked. He looked out through the hangar atmosphere shield and saw the Arbiter's flagship. The Truth and Reconciliation was thought to have been lost at the site of the now destroyed Delta Halo. Arbiter found the scorched wreckage and rebuilt it as his flagship. The Arbiter and his crew would be accompanying Jackson and his Spartan companions on their journey to the home world of the kids that were with them. Alex had told him the names of the kids.

'Ash and May huh?' he thought,' easy to remember.'

He chuckled slightly but no one noticed. Good. Alex also told him his suspicions about the depth of the relationship between Ash and May. He remembered telling that a*****l to keep it to himself. That it was their personal business. For a Spartan, Alex was pretty dumb. Then again, he was never trained to understand the concepts of…deep relationships. He shook it out of his head. He had to focus on here and now. The Brutes were no doubt looking for him. He was a legend in the Human-Covenant war.

"Hey Jackson," Alex called.

Jackson snapped out of it.

"Huh?" was all he could say.

Alex continued," You look tense man. Come on over and have some whisky."

"Uh, no thanks. I'm not much of a drinker," Jackson said.

"Suit yourself," Alex replied.

The droid came and gave Jackson a clipboard. The shuttle was ready. Ash and May walked in then. May was wearing her red bandana now, and the white pattern on the bandana was quite visible now.

'Oh no, just what I need', Jackson thought as he saw the red look on May's face that indicated that she had been crying. Ash spoke up first.

"We ready to go?" he asked.

Jackson nodded and gestured to Alex and his drinking companions at the edge of the hangar. Ash looked at them and smiled as he saw the two Spartans and the Elite laughing it up. They showed no sign of being drunk. Either they didn't drink much or they are just tough in mind and will. May smiled a bit when she saw ash smiling and chuckling at the sight. Alex saw Ash and put down his cup of whisky. There was only one bottle on the box in the middle of the group. This indicated that they haven't been drinking too much. Jackson was glad that they weren't alcoholics. He chuckled to himself and then went to the ship to carry out launch preparations. He didn't want to have a three second flight.

**CHAPTER 7**

"Hey Ash," Alex said.

"Sorry about what I said earlier at the viewport. I was just trying to joke around." He said apologetically.

"No need to apologize. It was just a bit of a sensitive topic. Besides I know you were joking," Ash said smiling at his new friend.

"Well that's good," Alex said glad that Ash wasn't one to hold a grudge.

He chuckled and motioned for Ash and May to follow.

"Come on, I'll get you some lemonade or maybe a soda." Alex said invitingly.

"Thanks," was all Ash could say.

He liked Alex. He was a kind hearted Spartan, and he always knew just what to say to turn things around…one way or another. It was strange. The Spirit of Fire was already starting to feel like home. So Ash went to join the group. May, on the other hand, was still upset. She heard a noise behind her and it didn't sound inviting at all. It was like a snarling.

Suddenly, one of the mechanics yelled," XENOMORPH," and people started shooting at a black skinned alien creature with a very uninviting appeal. It looked at May and snarled before launching itself at her, but it didn't get far. A bright red beam hit the creature and it went down in a rain of acid blood and black body parts. The acid melted the deck a bit before stopping. May was hesitant, but she looked back behind her to see who fired the killing blow and was surprised to see Ash holding a Spartan Laser with a smoking barrel. He looked angry and determined. The creature was dead, but it wasn't alone in infiltration. Two more Xenomorphs popped out of the vent and stared hungrily at Ash. He didn't flinch, but he did start charging the laser for another shot. He fired and missed only to see both Xenomorphs go down in a cascade of bullets in midair after they dodged his shot. May looked to see Jackson holding two smoking SMG's, one in each hand. The fight was over. Bio-scan station stated over the intercom that no more Xenomorphs were appearing on sensors and apologized for not paying attention to the sensors more. May went into shock and fell over her sight going black.

**CHAPTER 8**

"MAY!" Ash yelled as his friend fell over.

And he ran to catch her.

"D****t, this day just gets better and better," Jackson said with sarcasm…more to himself.

A medic arrived and reported that May simply fainted from shock. Ash seemed to be the most relieved. This made Jackson wonder if Alex was right. He shook it out of his mind. He went back to prepping the shuttle without a single expression on his face. Alex seemed to be angry that a Xenomorph got on the ship in the first place. In fact, everyone was. To Alex, however, it seemed that Ash was the angriest. Though, he probably could be proven wrong when he goes to debrief with the captain. It was bad enough that the Brutes had started another war. The UNSC didn't need to worry about Xenomorphs. It was getting out of hand. He was wondering if the Flood would reappear.

'D****t,' he thought,' this is too much. Xenomorphs and Brutes? I need a vacation!'

He was interrupted by the shuttle's engines firing up.

"You all gonna stand there or are we gonna get going?" Jackson asked. Everyone boarded the shuttle except for the Arbiter, who was to take his personal custom Seraph to his flagship and follow the shuttle with that.

'I'm just glad the Republic lended us a hyperdrive as powerful as this,' He thought as he looked at the shuttle and remembered its form of faster-than-light travel. He boarded the shuttle with the Master Chief, Ash, and an unconscious May in tow. It was gonna be a long flight. The Arbiter boarded his Seraph and headed to his flagship. The journey had begun.

**CHAPTER 9**

They saw the shuttle take off from the Battleship and wondered what was going on. They had decided to follow the shuttle. They were Sith Assassins. Their cloaked ship initiated pursuit. Auto-pilot was useful indeed in the leader's mind.

'Leaves room for practice,' he thought.

The fighting and the war had been going on for only two days and already he had heard of thousands of deaths.

'What is this universe getting into?' he wondered. 'What else could possibly go awry?' he questioned in his mind.

He got a telepathic message from one of his partners that an Elite Battleship was splitting off from the main group and following the shuttle with several escort fighters already in space.

'They must all have hyperdrives,' he thought.

This would make things much harder. He had only one target in mind though: The newly reactivated General Jackson. He would hang him from the rear of his ship and turn him into a decoration. Little did he know that Jackson was onto him. An EMP hit the cloaked ship and apprehension vessels had appeared.

'This isn't good,' he thought to himself. He turned to his companions to see a frightened look on their faces.

'This'll be quite a party,' he concluded to himself.

**CHAPTER 10**

They docked in the hangar of the Arbiter's ship in order to refuel. The shuttle wasn't as prepared as they had first thought. The nebula that pulled them out of Hyperspace/Slipspace wreaked havoc on the shuttle's systems. It needed repairs. Jackson was starting to wish he had shields like that on the Truth and Reconciliation. The marine-green covenant ship remained unscathed from the journey to the other side of the nebula. Covenant shields were strong, very strong. Jackson was rather upset. The shuttle was a recently acquired gift from the Republic Senate. It was armed and capable of self defense, but it lacked the shielding to avoid nebula damage. The ion particles had completely annihilated the weapons system, and the engine system was on the verge of failure. Things were looking bad. A girl passed out in the back, a p****d off 17 year old boy, and a bloodthirsty pair of cyborgs were his companions. He was starting to feel a little out of it. Maybe he made a mistake reactivating as general of the UNSC. Maybe he was just overreacting. He was just so confused, and things were happening so fast that no one was surprised by his confusion. He finished the docking sequence and exited the shuttle. He was followed out by his companions and, unbeknownst to him, a little stowaway. In fact, he was starting to feel uncomfortable with the situation. The nebula was strong enough to bring the shields on the Truth and Reconciliation to 50% despite their strength. He was about to head to his temporary quarters when an elite ran out with a worried expression.

'This can't be good,' Jackson thought.

He was right; it wasn't good. The elite had reported the presence of an enemy fleet in the area and the Arbiter was forced to shut down the engines and activate the new stealth generator to stay hidden. It wasn't right. They were on a mission of the utmost importance and they were being delayed with one problem after another. Would they reach the homeworld of his young companions in time? Would they be able to stop the Brute attack on the planet? He wasn't sure. In fact, he was having doubts. What would he do? Well, there was one upside: he wouldn't have to wait in a totally alien ship. The Truth and Reconciliation had human beings in its crew and human tech upgrades to boot. The halls even looked like human-covenant technology hybrids. May still wasn't awake however. He was concerned that Ash might end up doing something stupid if things kept getting out of hand like this. May had fallen unconscious twice in the last three days. Alex wasn't looking any better either. He seemed to be suffering from fatigue. Jackson didn't understand. Spartans had to be awake for months at a time to grow fatigued. He was starting to wonder how long it had been since Alex had had a nap. He laughed in his mind and decided to bring it up with him later. Ash and his new medic friend pushed May to the crew quarters on a gurney.

'This war is getting worse and worse,' Jackson thought to himself.

"Take me to the Arbiter," he told the elite that brought him the news of the enemy fleet. The elite nodded and led him to the control room. It was funny really. The control room of a Covenant vessel was in the dead center of the ship, near the power core. UNSC ships had their control rooms on the outside of the ship. He entered the control room and snapped out of his thoughts. He saw the Chief walk past him and realized that he must have been following him the whole time. The Chief approached the Arbiter and shook his hand, greeting his long time friend and ally. They were discussing how the Xenomorphs had gotten onto the Spirit of Fire when Jackson approached and received a crisp salute from both of them.

"At ease," he said. They relaxed and the Arbiter went back to work.

"We believe that the Xenomorphs got onto the Spirit of Fire by stowing away," the Chief started.

"That's done and over with, and I'm not concerned with the past," Jackson said sounding a little irritated.

He just wanted to complete the mission. The kids were hoping that they could help considering the fact that the planet that Jackson was trying to save was their homeworld. He snapped out of it and got back to work.

"What about the Brute fleet?" he asked.

"They're moving on," the Arbiter answered rather proudly.

"Why?" Jackson asked, unconvinced.

The Arbiter chuckled and said," We tricked them with a drone. They believe we are headed toward their base of operations and are moving to pursue."

Jackson could only chuckle at the thought of the Brutes being so dumb.

"Nice work Arbiter," he said still chuckling.

The Arbiter continued to chuckle as well. Jackson decided to go check on the kids and gestured to the Arbiter to indicate that he was leaving the bridge. The Arbiter nodded and got back to work. Jackson walked off the bridge and headed toward the crew quarters.

**CHAPTER 11**

Ash sat in his bed staring at the floor wondering what would happen next. He was letting his mind wander on the possibilities. May stirred and he ended up snapping out of his thought. He looked at May only to find that she had rolled over in her sleep. He went back to his thoughts. What would he do? How could he move on? The war started only three days ago and he was already losing his mind. He was afraid of what might happen. Would he live or die? Would any of his friends end up dying? He didn't want to dwell on it. He changed his train of thought. Of course there were the foreign feelings he got around May. He didn't want to think about that though. He decided to think about his newest friend. Lieutenant Colt Zamear was a good guy. He liked him. He got along with him well and not to mention Colt helped him get May to the crew quarters in the first place. He met him on Jackson's new shuttle. Colt was kind hearted and not to mention, strong. He could hold up to five Spartan Lasers at once and still walk at regular speed without dropping one. Ash was rather impressed with all the soldiers he met on his recently started adventure. It was good to be able to make friends. He couldn't think long on it though. He heard a banging noise on the other side of the starboard door. He decided to check it out. When he opened it, there was nothing there. This freaked him out a bit. He closed the door and went back to his bed. He was still a little frazzled when May woke up and startled him back to reality with a loud yawn. He jumped a bit and then started laughing when he realized it was May's yawning that made him jump. May looked at him awkwardly, apparently weirded out by the fact that Ash was laughing for some unknown reason. When he stopped laughing, he looked at her and smiled. She blushed and looked away when he looked at her like that. He just tilted his head, confused by her reaction. There was another banging sound outside the same door, louder this time. Ash went to look again and saw something rather unusual. The intercom chimed on and a report was heard that a Moorwen had stowed away on the ship. The Moorwen stowaway was what Ash was looking at right then and there. It was facing the other way and snarling. It was sniffing around for prey and looked around to see Ash poking his head out the door. He yelled and slammed the door to keep the Moorwen out. The door did nothing to stop it. It rammed through the wall and caused May to scream. The lights were flickering from the damage. The change in lighting only made the Moorwen look even more frightening. It started to glow with bioluminescence and approach Ash and May.

Ash got between it and May protectively and yelled," Stay back," at the thing.

The Moorwen lashed out with its claw and Ash put his arms up in defense. It cut into Ash's shoulder and May screamed in concern and fright. Just then, a warrior in orange armor came out of nowhere. The visor was a transparent green and the right arm of the suit was replaced with some kind of cannon. The warrior jumped on the Moorwen and elbowed it in the head from above. This caused the Moorwen to lose its footing and slip. The warrior then jumped on its head and aimed the cannon arm at the creature's cranium charging the weapon along the way. The warrior fired at point blank into the things skull and killed it. It fell over, dead. Ash was amazed at the warrior's ferocity and showed no concern for his wound. May was fazed only for a moment and then realized that her friend was hurt.

"Ash!" she yelled as she ran to him.

Ash finally was snapped out of his trance by a searing pain shooting down his arm and into his body. The Moorwen had cut deep into his shoulder. He was bleeding a lot. May got to his side as he fell to his knees, holding his wound. May seemed to be very concerned. She kneeled down and caught him as he passed out from the pain.

"Oh no," the warrior said with a female voice. May was surprised that the warrior had a female voice and looked up. The warrior pressed a button on the back of the helmet of the armor and the armor seemed to make the helmet turn to energy and suck it in. A woman's face replaced the emotionless, green visor. May was amazed that the person who killed the monster was female in the first place, and she was good at it…real good. There was no flaw in her combat form during the beast's final moments. The woman walked over to Ash and May and kneeled down to inspect Ash's wound. She seemed to be slightly concerned…no…very concerned.

"Who are you," May asked the woman with amazement in her voice.

"My name is Samus Aran," the woman answered.

Samus triggered a feature on her weapon and a small device popped out of the barrel. She aimed the device at Ash's wound and a wave of blue colored energy came out of the tip. As it came in contact with the wound, it started to heal very quickly. She was done in a matter of seconds. May looked in awe as the device quickly healed her friend.

"He should be fine now," Samus said," He just needs some rest."

May picked Ash up and put him on one of the beds that were still standing. She turned around and looked at where the warrior was, but when she did, the warrior was gone.

**CHAPTER 12**

"Samus get to the bridge," Jackson said into the intercom.

He was in the crew quarters earlier and saw her handiwork with the Moorwen. It was impressive but Samus was supposed to remain a secret from the kids. This was going bad, very bad. Samus came running in and stopped in front of Jackson.

"Are you insane?" Jackson asked rhetorically. "You were supposed to remain a secret," He said.

"Those kids were in trouble. You should have seen the boy's wound before I arrived," she said.

Jackson sighed and just waved her away. She left the bridge without another word.

"Are the reinforcement here yet?" he asked the Arbiter.

"They'll be here in an hour," He replied.

Jackson sighed and returned his gaze to the view screen. It showed a small blue and green planet surrounded by a Brute blockade. This world seemed very similar to Earth. This was Ash and May's homeworld. Unfortunately, several locations were already burning. He had the Arbiter stop the ship just outside the 'kill zone.' Soon, a Republic fleet would arrive to help out…If you could call a force as large as what the Republic was sending a fleet. The UNSC was bogged down with trying to push the Brutes out of human space. The Elites were sending reinforcements to stop the Brutes from annihilating the UNSC. The Republic and The Arbiter's ship were all that were available to free this important planet. It made a perfect staging ground for an assault on the enemy supply line. It was also the homeworld of two of the passengers aboard the Truth and Reconciliation. He was so confused though. It had only been 4 days since the war started and they were already about to start a massive battle. They received a transmission from the Brute Commander about two hours ago telling them to go away or be destroyed. Ash walked on to the bridge holding his shoulder. May was following closely trying to help reduce the discomfort. Ash seemed rather angry.

"It's bad enough that a black, acid-blooded alien tries to kill my friend, but when a giant monster tries to kill me a day later, well…I am starting to wonder how competent this crew is," he said.

Some of the crew looked at him in a funny way when they heard him say that. Ash didn't notice. He was fuming from the fact that both he and May fell into dangerous situations at least four time in the last four days. Jackson just looked at him without expression and then turned back to his work. This made Ash furious.

"Why you…," he said as he reared up his fist for a punch to the General's gut.

May stopped him though.

"Ash, don't," she said.

He looked at her anger still in his eyes, but that changed when he saw the sad look on her face. He then started to look apologetic. The entire crew was watching by then, and the Chief was aiming his rifle at Ash ever since he reared up to throw the punch that never came. Ash sighed and looked at the Chief.

"Point that thing somewhere else," he said as he pointed at the rifle still aimed at him. The Chief lowered his weapon and walked the other way. The Arbiter was just dumbfounded at what had just happened. Some of the crew was surprised, and others were angry. Some just couldn't believe their eyes, and the helmsman fainted at the sight of this. Jackson spoke up.

"You need to learn to control your anger kid," he said as Ash started to turn away.

Ash stopped in his tracks and grabbed the pistol in the holster of the navigation officer next to him and took aim at Jackson's head as he switched the safety off. Jackson didn't flinch. The Arbiter, however, pulled out an energy sword and ignited it, ready for combat, when he saw the danger his commanding officer was in. Ash didn't move, but he did look furious. May kept trying to pull Ash away before someone got shot, but she couldn't. Ash wouldn't budge. Alex then snuck up behind Ash and knocked the weapon out of Ash's hand. When it hit the floor however, the weapon fired off the first bullet of the day. The bullet hit May's foot. Everyone gasped and May screamed. Ash looked at Alex with malice in his eyes.

"WHY YOU LITTLE…," he said and he tackled the Spartan with unbelievable strength.

He actually knocked down a Spartan. Everybody started to back away as this unfolded. Jackson finally made a move and pulled Ash off to throw him into the bulkhead.

"ENOUGH!" he yelled at the boy," Can't you see that this is just…REDICULOUS. AND ANOTHER THING, ALEX WATCH WHERE YOU KNOCK ARMED GUNS NEXT TIME!"

Ash wondered why Jackson mentioned the gun part, but soon found out why. He hadn't noticed until now that May was on the floor massaging her bleeding foot and crying. Seeing this, Ash broke into tears and ran from the bridge, sobbing as he went. Jackson watched Ash run from the bridge and tried to stop him. The Arbiter told Jackson to do the opposite and let Ash go. May was bleeding on the floor and by now had lost a lot of blood. Jackson called out for a medic and Samus came with her medical tool ready to go.

**CHAPTER 13**

Ash ran into his room and slammed the door shut. He was still crying.

'What have I done?' he asked himself.

There was a knock on the door and he screamed toward the door for the visitor to go away. Instead, the door opened, and May limped in. Ash saw her and cried even harder. He felt so guilty and confused. He had never been so angry in his life and certainly had never been the reason for the injury of a friend. He was so upset and wanted to just leave. He ran past May and down toward the hangar.

"Ash wait!" she called after him.

He didn't stop.

**CHAPTER 14**

Reinforcements had arrived and Jackson was headed down to the hangar to grab a fighter of his own to join the fight. Everyone was rushing around preparing the weapons and launching fighters. Jackson could tell it would be a fight to remember out there. He reached the hangar and looked out through the atmosphere shield to see the Brute fleet mobilizing and a Republic fleet getting ready to bombard the enemy. He smiled at the thought of the Brutes being pummeled for a change. Space combat was not their forte. Ash walked in and saw the commotion. He seemed to have been crying. No doubt that it was because of what happened on the bridge a couple hours ago. Ash saw Jackson and seemed to be thinking about whether he should run or stay. The Chief made him decide to stay and see Jackson off. He wouldn't let him leave without apologizing first though. Ash approached Jackson and shook his hand.

"I'm sorry about what happened on the bridge," the boy said.

"Don't be. I should've been more sympathetic," Jackson replied.

Ash smiled and seemed to brighten up at this.

"Just don't die out there. I don't want to lose a friend today," he said in warning.

"Hey, I'm a veteran remember?"

Jackson said as he climbed into his Skipray Blastboat.

'Just don't die man. I've been through enough today,' Ash thought as May walked in.

The Blastboat took off loudly, and it flew to join the Chief's squadron. The ship rumbled as the new MAC Guns opened fire on the enemy fleet. At the same time, the Republic fleet fired its own weapons at the Brutes. The battle had begun.

**CHAPTER 15**

May watched in awe as the massive amount of fighters in the hangar all flew off at once. She didn't see Ash approaching.

"Come on," Ash said snapping her out of it.

They left the hangar. The Arbiter watched them go and then went back to his conversation with his right hand man. The elite commander was strong, had a missing mandible piece, and had many encounters with the now long believed extinct Flood. This commander fought by the Arbiter when he first became, THE ARBITER. It was funny really. He started fighting by the Brutes, and now, he's fighting against them. The commander nodded to the Arbiter as he boarded his Seraph. The thing was marine-green colored and had some human machineguns on it to accompany his plasma weapons. He requested the upgrade. It was his idea of showing respect to the Elites' allies: the Humans. The Arbiter nodded a farewell and the commander left to join the fight with his personal elite squadron in tow. It would be a long day.

**CHAPTER 16**

Jackson winced as he lost his wingmate. He had three Brute Seraphs on his tail, and they were gaining fast. He swerved left and then veered up and over to face them. He actually ended up flanking them with his surprise maneuver. They were wide open for destruction. He fired his laser cannons on full power and destroyed them all. They disappeared from sensors and were marked on his screen as his kills. The Master Chief keyed in on the com and told Jackson to join him and Alex in a combat trio. Jackson complied and moved to form up on them. A three man V-formation resulted from this and they made a run on the exposed core of a Brute Carrier. The thing exploded only seconds after the destruction of the core. A few Seraphs survived and gave chase to Jackson and his wingmates. He told them to keep going and keyed off. He cut his engine and flipped over 180 degrees and keyed the engine back on, barrel rolling as he bolted into the formation of Seraphs, cannons a-blazing. He came out behind them to see on his sensors that not even one of the enemy Seraphs survived his run.

Suddenly, he heard a report on the com:" All units belonging to the Truth and Reconciliation, we require immediate aid. Help from others is welcomed and encouraged. The enemy is attempting to board our ship. External bio-scans indicate presence of Xenomorphs and Moorwens on board remote boarding craft. I repeat, we request assistance."

Jackson and the rest of Truth and Reconciliation's fighters turned to support their home craft. They weren't the only ones. The republic sent two ace squadrons and three anti-fighter cruisers to help.

**CHAPTER 17**

The ship shook as it took a hit and a Spartan was running through the halls shooting at boarders as he went. This Spartan's name was Thomas. He ran through the halls of the Truth and Reconciliation, breathing heavily. He ended up tripping over a young boy. The boy yelled in pain and surprise. A girl screamed, frightened at first. Then she got angry with Thomas for tripping over her friend.

"GET OFF HIM!" she screamed.

"SORRY! RUNNING FOR MY LIFE HERE!" he said getting off the boy and helping him up. Just then, an explosion sounded behind Thomas and the girl screamed. Thomas turned and saw what she was screaming at. A Moorwen came through the smoking hole in the wall.

'Just what I need,' he thought to himself. He grabbed the boy and the girl and started at a run towards the escape pods. The Moorwen was hot on their tail. They ran through some crossfire between boarders and defenders and dodged the bullets and flying energy. The Moorwen wasn't so lucky however and got pulverized by the weapons fire.

'Stupid, ugly-a*s beast,' Thomas thought as he entered the escape pod closest to him and dropped the kids in the passenger seats.

"HOLD ON!" he yelled to them as he kicked the release to the pod.

**CHAPTER 18**

Jackson saw an escape pod leave the Truth and Reconciliation and decided to follow it. He made his intentions known to the rest of the squad and changed course. He feared the worst. He initiated a bio-scan and was relieved to find two young teens and a Spartan in the pod. All were alive and well. He keyed the com and hailed the pod.

"This is Thomas, go ahead," the voice of the pod's Spartan pilot came.

"This is General Jackson. Spartan, those kids are not supposed to leave the ship. I scanned your cargo so don't think I'm trying to bluff," Jackson stated into the com.

"Sorry General, I had no choice. The Brutes and their "pets" were everywhere. They would've killed the kids," Thomas stated rather plainly.

"Understood. Need an escort?" Jackson asked.

Thomas gratefully accepted the escort offer and they headed to the planet. The Brutes payed no heed to the two small craft. They were too busy with the larger ships that were attacking them. The escape pod and the Blastboat both escaped the scene unharmed and landed on the planet. The pod had a rather rough landing though and the exit hatch was on the edge of a cliff of all things. The hatch opened and the Spartan climbed around and offered support to the kids. Jackson landed his Blastboat near them and moved to help. He exited his ship at a run. A Brute Banshee flew over then. They had been spotted. While Ash was helping May to the safety of solid ground, a fuel rod blast hit the ground next to the pod and she slipped and almost fell. She didn't however due the fact that the boy helping her didn't let go. Jackson pulled the rocket launcher he brought with him out and fired a tracking rocket at the attacker. The Banshee went down with a ground-shaking thud. However, the last thing Ash and May needed was the ground rumbling from the impact. May was losing her grip and slipping. She screamed out of fear of falling. Jackson and Thomas couldn't move to help though. They Brutes had another scout headed towards them. In fact, there were three of them. Jackson had only one rocket left and wasn't sure how to get out of this. He fired at one of the Banshees, despite the fact that there were more than he could handle. The first Banshee went down. Thomas solved the problem by jumping on one of remaining flyers as it came in for a low altitude run on them and took it over. The Brute inside fell to his death. He used his new vehicle to take out the other Banshee, but it didn't end it. The ground was about to be shaking a h**l of a lot more. A massive silver-violet craft was headed to the ground. It was a heavily damaged Brute Battleship. They couldn't stay in the air apparently and gravity took them. It hit the ground at least five miles away and the ground began to shake ferociously.

"HELP!" screamed May.

Thomas moved to aid but Jackson didn't move. There was a wall of blue fire headed straight for them. The crash was worse than he first thought. However the wall dissipated, and he nearly collapsed from shock. He didn't lose consciousness though. He kept his composure and took aim in the direction of the crash. There could be survivors. Thomas got back to Jackson's side with both kids in tow. He saved them from a bad fall. However, there were still enemies out there. They left the desolate cliff they were standing on top of and started looking for shelter.

**CHAPTER 19**

The Chief and Alex were still fighting in space at the moment. They confirmed that Jackson and the kids were safe and sound. The kids may not be essential personnel, but the UNSC wasn't heartless. It was the General that convinced the leadership to let them stay. He had a good reason too. He couldn't let the kids leave because they would end up being targets-to-capture for the Brutes. They knew too much. The Chief snapped himself out of it. Now wasn't the time.

"Alex, let's go. We've waited long enough," the Chief said.

Alex clicked the com in acknowledgement. With that they took to the surface where Jackson's beacon was. They moved fast and stealthy to avoid attracting attention from the Brutes. It didn't work. Out of nowhere, two Seraphs and at least twenty Zero-G Banshees came in to pursue them.

"Bogeys on our six!" Alex yelled over the com.

"I see em'," The Chief said as he swerved to challenge the oncoming wave of enemies.

"Stay on target and get to the General. I'll be right behind you," he said to Alex before moving in on the enemy and taking the first shots at the enemy.

Alex acknowledged and kept flying.

**CHAPTER 20 (Ironic twist here)**

Jackson saw a small valley with three small structures in it and plenty of trees in it. It was strangely familiar to him though, but he didn't care. He climbed down allowing his relief at finding shelter to show. Ash and May were also relieved. Thomas, however, didn't seem to care. He was deep in thought and showed no care in the world for his surroundings. He was more worried about the terrain behind them. He couldn't shake the feeling that they were being followed. He stopped at the cliff and started to climb down. Jackson heard the beacon in his helmet beeping faster and at a higher pitch. The beacon's cousin was getting close. Alex would be there soon. It was sooner than he thought too. As soon as he finished his thought, a large Longsword Fighter flew over and landed in the valley beneath them. Alex stepped out of the fighter and moved to help. Just then, a small, orange craft with a green viewport on the front flew over and landed next to Alex's Longsword. A small hatch opened on the bottom of the craft and down came a small platform with a familiar sight standing on that platform. Samus walked out and hailed Jackson.

He accepted the transmission and Samus said," I'm gonna scout around. I'll report my findings."

Jackson clicked the com to acknowledge and approve this idea. Samus jumped and transformed into a small little sphere. That sphere rolled off to carry out the scouting mission.

'That Morph Ball Mode must be uncomfortable,' Jackson thought as he completed his decent into the valley. He was upset that the fighting at his landing zone damaged his vessel beyond repair. The ground quakes that occurred there shook many components loose and the cockpit had taken a hit from a fuel rod cannon, courtesy of the Brutes. He was frazzled that it happened at all. They went to the closest structure in the valley and set up base camp. It was filled with Covenant tech too.

'This place must have been a battlefield in the Human-Covenant War,' Jackson thought.

Just then he heard a familiar chittering near the doorway. He looked to see a small Flood spore standing there and just staring at them. May walked by and screamed at the sight of it. It didn't flinch. It tilted its bulbous form as if tilting its head in curiosity. It approached Jackson and stopped at his feet. This surprised the General. The critter looked up at him, chattered, looked back down, and brushed some dirt off of Jackson's boot. This just confused Jackson even more. May started to grow interested. He placed his hand on the floor in front of the creature, palm facing up, and, to his surprise, the critter crawled up his arm and settled on his shoulder without even making an attempt to take him over. Jackson was skeptical. Was this a friendly Flood spore? He turned to see two more at the doorway. He also nearly freaked at the sight of a Warrior Xenomorph behind them, but, instead of attacking, the creature tilted its head in curiosity. Jackson was totally freaked. He was surprised at the lack of hostility in the four creatures in the room with them. May approached the group of creatures at the door cautiously, and, to Jackson's surprise, the closest Flood spore tackled her knocking her down and just chattered affectionately. Now Jackson was just stuttering. Alex walked in and took aim but saw Jackson was only stuttering. Alex decided not to move or fire. What surprised Alex was Jackson telling him to stand down.

"T...they…they're friendly," Jackson managed to say.

Alex's jaw dropped.

"WHAT!" Alex screamed as May continued laughing of all things.

Samus walked in and took aim but didn't fire. What stopped her was the sight of May laughing as a Flood spore ran around on her stomach and the two soldiers in the room staring at each other mouths agape.

"What in the world is going on?" she asked.

Jackson answered her with a shrug.

"They are friendly of all things, even the Xenomorph," Alex said in awe.

Samus just lowered her weapon and backed up slightly.

"What?" she said, surprise in her voice.

"They're friendly," Alex repeated. Thomas walked in but didn't raise his weapon or look surprised.

"I found these guys just running around in a field playing," he said.

That was when Samus' jaw finally dropped as far as it could. Ash walked in behind Thomas and laughed at the sight of the motionless bounty hunter. She wasn't wearing her helmet so Ash saw her jaw hanging too. He laughed even harder.

Samus closed her mouth, looked at Ash, and said," Shut up."

"I can't help it. That's too funny," Ash said, still laughing.

The Flood spore on May stopped running around and hopped off. May stopped laughing and got up smiling.

"That was a pleasant surprise," She said as she started to laugh again.

Then Jackson started laughing. Alex started laughing soon after the General. Thomas and Samus joined in too, and they were all just laughing it up. When the laughter died down, there was only one sound left heard in the room. That was the Xenomorph laughing. He had joined in too. He stopped laughing and grinned a kind of creepy grin. No one was fazed however. They were all smiling and Jackson just chuckled.

"Well this is completely unexpected," Jackson said, still chuckling.

The Xenomorph grunted its agreement, still grinning. Alex frowned in a funny way that made everyone laugh some more.

"This is just ironic," he said, and he smiled again.

May stopped laughing to find she had her hand on Ash's back for support. She pulled it back quick and blushed. No one noticed. Ash and the others were still laughing in up. Jackson stopped and saw the Xenomorph gesture for him to follow. They walked out while everyone just looked confused, but happy. They were glad to find someone, or something, friendly down in this valley.

"That was something else," Thomas said. One of the friendly Flood spores climbed up onto Thomas' shoulder and started snoring.

"Little guy must be tired," he said aloud.

Samus smiled and walked out to continue her patrol, but she didn't go alone. She took one of the other friendly Flood spores with her. The third one skittered out the door and went to follow Jackson and the Xenomorph. A fifth creature walked in too. But it wasn't Flood or Xenomorph. The sight of this visitor got Ash smiling quickly.

**CHAPTER 21 **

Jackson followed the Xenomorph to a small section in the cliff surrounding the valley. It was shaded and a good sized tree was growing in front of this section of cliff. The Xenomorph stopped at a stone on the cliff and pressed it down. The whole section started reacting as stone plates moved out of the way to reveal ancient text. Jackson was completely awed at the sight of this. Surprisingly, he actually understood the text.

It said as follows,' Long ago, an ancient war broke out between two powerful factions. This valley was caught in the center. A massive battle broke out and swords and shields clashed on the field. In this very valley, a hero emerged and called for help from the gods. In response to this call, hundreds of black skinned, reptilian creatures appeared. They were followed by an unappealing, yet very powerful, army of creatures that called itself, The Flood. The creatures aided the hero and brought peace to the land. The two kingdoms became allies and a Golden Age began. The reptilian creatures and the Flood swore an oath to protect the land and answer to the land's king when he called. Eventually the king left on a great quest, never to return. He said than an heir would come to take the throne. That an heir would come and present a reptilian with a great gift and take this reptilian under his wing. He left without another word.'

'Why was the Xenomorph showing him this?' he wondered.

Then it hit him.

"You think I am the heir mentioned in that story?" he asked the creature standing next to him.

It nodded and showed him a small assortment of armor and weapons that would easily fit on the Xenomorph.

"I understand," Jackson said.

He took the metal material and the weapons and presented them to the creature. It looked at him questioningly.

"What, I already made my choice," Jackson said proudly.

The Xenomorph grinned and accepted.

'I just found out about this and yet I feel so able to accept this. What in the world is going on? I'm just going with it and I don't even understand it,' Jackson thought to himself.

He looked back at the text on the wall and then pressed the stone that his new companion had pushed in earlier. The stone plates moved back into place and the wall looked like regular cliff face once more. He looked at his new friend and was amazed at how the armor matched him.

"What's your name?" Jackson asked him.

The Xenomorph drew something in the sand and motioned for Jackson to examine it. It was in the same text as what was on the wall a moment ago. It read: Beremund. He knew he would have to explain this to his companions back at base camp. He decided he would cross that bridge when he got there.

"Come on Beremund," he said.

Beremund screeched his pride to the sky and then followed Jackson back to base camp.

**CHAPTER 22**

Ash was sitting under a tall tree at the top of a large hill. He had his mind wandering. His old friend Pikachu had arrived earlier. He was happy about that, but something was still tugging on his mind. He couldn't place it. He was so confused. He had a headache from all the things that already happened in the valley. He and the others learned from Jackson how historically important this valley was. He explained that he was the heir to the throne of a kingdom that had disappeared a long time ago. What bothered him more though was the fact that a Xenomorph would be traveling with them. Friendly or not, those creatures were a bit too frightening in appearance. But, Beremund's personality and his new and valuable armor and weapons made him look a bit less scary and a bit more like a legendary guardian of a sorts. All the same, he didn't like it. Still, that wasn't what bothered him the most. What bothered him was something that he didn't even know about. It was very foreign to him. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone's approach. He turned around to see May.

"Can I join you?" she asked.

Ash only nodded and turned back around. He was really confused. May saw how confused her friend was and started to worry. He had been like this for a while.

'Especially around me,' she thought. Then she had a wild idea.

'Could he possibly feel that way about me?' She wondered.

She thought she shouldn't press the topic. He seemed to be real uncomfortable with his confusion. She realized that he didn't even know he had those feelings. All he was feeling was a foreign rise in his heart rate. He didn't understand. Though she did want to know whether she was right or not, she didn't want to make her friend feel uncomfortable. She didn't want to freak him out. It was all so strange. She then realized something. She started to feel something she had only felt when she ended up blushing and looking away, but she didn't look away. She did blush a bit though. Her thoughts were interrupted when a large UNSC craft flew over. It was a massive dropship. It was carrying a massive structure, or at least a section of a large structure. This was confirmed when another identical dropship flew over with another building piece. The UNSC was deploying a base in the area. The Spirit of Fire had arrived. Lord Hood would be here soon. Ash appeared to have been snapped out of his thoughts by the dropships flying over as well.

"Come on, we should go," Ash said, and he grabbed May's right hand and started pulling her towards the base camp.

She blushed when she felt his hand against hers. She shook it out of her head. Suddenly, a massive roar was heard behind them. She looked back to see a Moorwen on top of the cliff face nearby. It was on an electrical leash though. Then several brutes appeared on either side of it. The Brute handling the Moorwen hit a button on the leash handle and the link between his hand and the collar around the beast's neck disappeared. He barked an order pointing at Ash and May, and the Moorwen charged. It was too fast. It would be on them in seconds. May was panicking and Ash seemed to sense her distress. He pulled her behind a boulder and pulled out an ODST Silenced Magnum. May was sad to feel him let go of her hand, but she didn't make it obvious. Then Ash jumped out from behind the rock and took aim. She tried to stop him, but she failed. Ash had a serious look on his face, and he had an aura about him that made his very presence feel menacing. His eyes were filled with malice. His arm muscles bulged a bit as he dodged the Moorwen and took a swing at its head. He hit the thing with the butt of the gun. It roared in pain and May was amazed and a bit frightened at the fact that Ash was stronger than she first thought. He then aimed at the thing and let loose three bullets. The whole time, his eyes were filled with anger and hatred. May saw something in those eyes though that she had seen before plenty of times: worry for his friend. He rolled to the side as the Moorwen took another leap at him. He hit it in the head harder this time as it passed him. May heard the skull of the beast crack. It collapsed on the ground, moaning in pain. Ash screamed triumphantly at the sky. He then shot the head of the monster at point blank range at least nine times. He had emptied the rest of the magazine mercilessly into the things skull. It exhaled sharply and went limp as it died. Ash backed away, breathing heavily and dropped the pistol.

He passed out and the last thing he heard before losing all of his senses was May screaming," ASH NO!"

**CHAPTER 23**

It was afternoon and the sun was starting to set. An armored alien creature was prowling along searching for worthy prey when he heard a commotion in the valley to his left. It ran to the cliff and saw a young human boy fighting ferociously against one of the deadliest beasts in the universe: a Moorwen. It watched, amazed at the boy's ferocity and strength not noticing that his conscious thought was waning. The boy dodged once and fired three times at the beast after taking a swing. It roared in pain and pounced again. The human dodged and swung again, harder this time, and hit the thing in the skull. The Moorwen collapsed, and the boy screamed at the air in triumph. He then approached the beast, malice in every step, and fired nine consecutive shots into the beast's skull at point blank range. He stepped back, breathing heavily for a moment, and then dropped his weapon and passed out. A young human female ran out from hiding, screaming something, and caught the boy in her arms. The whole time the alien watched. It grew ever more amazed. It then hit the creature that one possible reason that the boy would have been fighting like that before he even learned how was that he was h**l-bent on killing the Moorwen to keep it from harming his female companion. The creature changed his visor mode and zoomed in. The hormone scan on the boy was at high levels. Same with the girl. This gave the alien some ideas. He then saw a universally known orange-armored warrior approach the two at high speed. It tried to hide itself better and decided to activate its camouflage. The warrior looked up in its direction but looked away, sure that there was nothing there. The creature left the cliff and returned to his hunt, deciding to avoid disturbing these beings until the time was right.

**CHAPTER 24**

Samus arrived on the scene and saw the dead Moorwen and Ash in May's arms. She was crying. Ash's life signs were very low.

"This is really starting to get on my nerves," Samus said," Can't the brutes just leave us all alone for a little longer?"

Thomas arrived and pulled out some medical gear.

"May, get back," he said.

He pulled out a kind of electrical device. It was a defribulator. Samus stepped back as well. Thomas moved Ash's shirt out of the way and pressed the shock side of the device to his chest. "CLEAR!" he yelled out, and the charging device discharged the energy straight into the dying boy's body. He inhaled sharply and got up holding his head.

"Ash, you're ok!" May screamed happily.

She ran over and hugged him.

"That was perhaps the easiest revive ever," Thomas said with sarcasm and happiness in his voice.

May looked at Thomas with tears in her eyes and mouthed," Thank you," to him.

Thomas gave a quick and fluid salute and turned towards where the Brutes that set the Moorwen on the kids were, but they were gone. That wasn't the only surprising thing though. He though he saw something run through his line of sight. It seemed to be in active camouflage. He deemed it to be all in his head and turned his attention back to his companions. They walked back to base camp. May was supporting Ash all the way there. She didn't care what thoughts it put in everyone else's heads. All she wanted to do now was get her best friend to safety before something else happened. Samus was aiming here and there, being on full alert. Things were looking even worse than before. First the Brutes start another war, then they start unveiling new ranks and technologies in combat, now they're using wild carnivores from around the universe as war beasts of all things. How could it get worse? They kept moving and didn't stop the rest of the way.

**CHAPTER 25 (another ironic twist here)**

Jackson and his new friend, Beremund, were walking along on patrol. Jackson had outfitted a translator for Beremund and installed it in his suit. So he could understand the creature now. He was extremely loyal, and he was already a true friend. Jackson looked at Beremund and smiled, knowing that he had nothing to worry about. He was proven wrong however when Beremund stopped suddenly and started sniffing the air.

"What's wrong Beremund?" Jackson asked.

Beremund growled and his translator said," Samus, Thomas, and the kids are in trouble."

"What! Come on, let's go!" Jackson said.

Beremund nodded and they ran off toward the four allies in trouble.

Jackson keyed his com and said," Samus, Thomas! Beremund and I are aware of the situation, and were coming to help."

Samus' voice came over the com with a loud crackle.

"Hurry up! We can't hold them off forever!" she yelled into the com.

Jackson heard weapons fire in the background. Beremund heard it in his com too. He was getting more and more anxious to help.

"What's the situation?" Beremund's translator sent as he growled into the com unit.

"Ash is injured badly! High blood pressure nearly killed him but Thomas saved him! He isn't capable of fighting at the moment! Thomas and I are covering them as best as we can!" she replied.

"Them?" Jackson asked, confused.

"May is with us and she's trying to support Ash back to base!" she said as more shots were heard over the com, "Ash suffered his injury from high blood pressure achieved in a fight with a Moorwen of all things!"

"WHAT!" Beremund and Jackson both sent through the com.

"Don't worry, Ash killed thing! God knows how!" She said.

More shots were heard and a young female scream was heard in the background.

"May's hit!" Thomas reported.

Jackson then saw them. There were Brutes and hostile Xenomorphs chasing the small group. Beremund growled at the sight of the hostile Xenomorphs. Jackson armed his rocket launcher and Beremund, his back mounted mortar.

"Take cover guys!" he instructed over the com. He saw them dive behind a large boulder and fired his rockets at the enemy group. Beremund fired his mortar and charged. The explosions shook the air and several dying screams could be heard from the enemy group. Jackson pulled out two energy swords and charge as well. Jackson and Beremund were in complete unison. They fought as if they were a master and apprentice of the Jedi. He sliced and Beremund pierced. The fight was intense. Out of nowhere, two Brute Choppers came out and tried to ram them. The two warriors dodged and sliced the Choppers in half. The two choppers exploded when they collided with each other and the ground. The Brutes were sent flying, and an enemy Xenomorph was caught in the blast.

It was growing more and more intense until… "Jackson, Beremund! This is the Chief! Get out of the blast zone! We're firing the MAC Guns at those b*****s!" came the Chief's voice.

Jackson and Beremund ran out of the battle zone just in time as the MAC rounds hit their targets. The explosions were massive. The bombardment shook the ground heavily, and the Brutes and enemy Xenomorphs were flying everywhere. Some even exploded or got crushed. Beremund laughed as the enemy became nothing more than a pile of dead bodies and broken weapons and vehicles. The bombardment stopped. When the dust cleared, Jackson saw just how effective a MAC Gun bombardment from space could be. But MAC Rounds weren't the only thing that hit the enemy. There were hints of scorch marks from the Turbo Lasers of the Republic warships. Jackson was impressed. However, his surprise was short lived. There were still Brutes coming at them that weren't in the impact zone. Jackson threw a grenade at them and beaconed for Beremund to follow him as he ran towards the group. He ran around the boulder and saw the group. Ash was barely standing. May was holding her left shoulder. Thomas was breathing heavily. Samus was the only one unfazed. Thomas armed a grenade and threw it over the boulder, as Jackson and Beremund appeared. More Brutes cried out as they were killed by the grenade. This was getting out of hand, and the General knew it.

"What do we do?" Thomas asked.

"I'm not sure yet," Jackson breathed.

They were all nearly out of breath.

Jackson looked at Beremund and asked," Do you remember that Rocket pod attachment I put on your armor?"

Beremund nodded and knew what Jackson was suggesting right away. He deployed the rocket pods, jumped up on the boulder, and fired a small eight-rocket barrage at the remaining Brutes. It wasn't enough. Those that survived the barrage kept coming. Beremund didn't understand. He looked at Jackson questioningly, wondering what to do next. Jackson didn't have time to answer though. He suddenly heard Brutes screaming out in pain as Beremund landed next to them. Suddenly the screaming stopped along with the sound of charging Brutes. He looked around the boulder and saw all the remaining brutes were either bleeding or missing a limb. Standing in the middle of the carnage was an unlikely creature. It was a biped that was wearing some alien armor. It had an assortment of weapons upon its harnesses. When it looked at him with an emotionless metal mask, he knew what it was. It was a Predator. He braced for an attack from the creature, but it never came. Instead, the Predator approached and laid a device with the appearance of a giant alien club in front of Jackson. The thing was a Gravity Hammer. He looked at its unique design and understood. The Predator had killed the remaining Brutes and the group's chieftain in order to help out. The Predator nodded its head and walked away, activating its camouflage device as it went. Jackson was completely baffled. He had never known a Predator to help others, and he wasn't the only one to look totally shocked.

**CHAPTER 26**

It walked on in active camouflage, paying no heed to its surroundings. It was too busy thinking about its recent deed. It saved the human boy and those fighting by him from an onslaught of enraged ape-like aliens. It couldn't help itself. It had the feeling that if anyone in that group died too soon, the universe would echo the pain the dying person felt. It was thinking of its next course of action when another ape-like being stepped in front of him and looked down at its camouflaged form. It looked up at the thing as it switched off its invisibility and deployed the blades on its wrist right into the creatures gut. It went down with a baffled look on its face. The Predator turned around and knew what it had to do. It went back to the valley. It would keep the group safe for the sake of the rest of its race.

**CHAPTER 27**

Back at base, Alex was still looking baffled at the story that Jackson and the others had told him. The part that surprised him was a Predator saving their a***s. What the heck was a Predator doing out here in the first place anyway?

He shook it out of his head and asked Jackson," Are you sure?"

"Positive," he replied.

"That's just weird. What in the galaxy is goin' on around here?" Alex wondered aloud.

"Hey don't look at me," Thomas said.

Samus was leaning in the doorway of the structure that was their base camp. She didn't care about the fact that a Predator saved them. At least they were alive. Ash was downstairs on a bed in the new med bay. May was at the door wondering when he would wake up. Things were all going out of whack. Alex heard Beremund walking around behind him and turned. Beremund was tending to the gear in the half of the room he was in. He walked back and forth, repairing things, organizing all the records and files, and even preparing the weapons for the next fight. Beremund wasn't surprised in the least. He just didn't like being saved by a member of the very race that uses his race as hunting game. It was frustrating. He kept growling and grumbling to himself has he worked. Alex just shook his head and turned back around to face the others.

"I'm goin' for a walk," he said and walked out.

Samus stepped out of the way as Alex grabbed his rifle and walked out. Another soldier walked in.

"Hello," he said.

Jackson turned to meet the visitor.

"Who are you?" Jackson asked.

"Call me Gunner. Lord Hood sent me to help," the soldier said.

"Welcome to the team Gunner. We need someone to help Thomas out in med bay downstairs. He just left to do his job," he explained," Sorry to put you to work just as soon as you arrive, but I need someone to go help him."

"Hey, I don't mind. I prefer to stay active," he said happily and walked out to join Thomas in med bay.

"Did I just miss something?" Samus asked, confused more now than ever.

"We just got a new recruit in five seconds flat," Jackson said, laughing.

Samus just scratched her head since she was even more confused than she was a moment ago.

"Just go relax while we have a bit of peace," Jackson said happily.

She complied and went to chill out. Jackson sighed loudly and just let himself plop into the fold-up chair behind him. He was exhausted.

**CHAPTER 28**

Thomas was working hard on making sure Ash would live through this. Ash was currently asleep on one of the beds near the monitors and control panels. May refused to leave her friend so he let her stay. He heard the door chime as it opened.

"Who is it?" Thomas asked blankly.

"Call me Gunner. Lord Hood sent me to help you guys out. General Herman sent me down here to help," the visitor said.

"Welcome to the team Gunner. You can call the General by his first name. He doesn't mind," Thomas said, perking up a bit.

"How good are you at medical work?" he asked Gunner.

"I'm a bit of an average soldier around here. I was actually thinking of asking for better training when I got here, but I think I could use some time in a quiet place like this," he said happily.

"Heh…this place is far from quiet my friend," Thomas chuckled," Wait till you see the hostile activity around here."

Gunner frowned a bit and looked at the main computer. Thomas turned to look at him.

"What's biting you?" he asked, worried about the frown on Gunner's face.

"Huh?" he said snapping out of it," Oh…it's nothing."

Thomas gave him a look and turned back to the controls.

"This is gonna be a long week," He said more to himself.

Ash stirred and got up. This got Thomas' attention quick. Gunner was a bit slower to respond.

"Hey kid. Sleep well?" he asked the boy.

Ash yawned and simply said," No."

"Huh? Why not?" Thomas asked starting to get concerned.

"You wouldn't sleep well either if you had the headache I have now," he said sarcastically.

Thomas laughed and said," You're probably right."

He turned back to the screen. Ash got up and walked over. May saw him and ran over.

"Ash, you're awake!" she said happily.

"Yeah, I am, but I don't feel too good," Ash replied with a rather annoyed tone.

"He'll definitely be fine now. I'm reading completely normal life signs," Thomas explained," You're free to go kid. Your backpack is on the table by the door. Take the SMG next to it. Trust me, you might need it later."

Ash left without another word. May was a bit hesitant, but she followed him out.

"Now what?" Gunner asked.

"Well we rest and wait while we have some peace around here." He explained as he began lounging on the chair.

"Um, ok then. I'll just go to the roof and keep a lookout," Gunner said, a little unsure.

"You go do that kid," Thomas said carelessly.

**CHAPTER 29**

Outside, Ash was walking toward the nearby cave. He needed some time in the hot spring there. He didn't know that May was following him. She was easily noticeable to, but he was too deep in thought to notice it. He looked up at the sky and smiled at the sight. It was clear of enemies and smoke, and the only unnatural thing in that sky was the Spirit of Fire. The ship was so high up that you could barely see much more than a silhouette. May saw him looking up and looked up herself. There it was, the Spirit of Fire, the ship that they got used to being on very quickly, a ship that felt like home. Ash looked back down and sighed loudly. This got May's attention and she frowned at the sound of him sighing like that. She wasn't happy about recent events either, but Ash seemed far more upset than she was. She saw Samus spiral by in Morph Ball Mode and use a magnetic beam to roll up the cliff side. Ash laughed at seeing her do this. May wondered why he laughed at it though. Ash just frowned and looked back down after. May was really worried about him and decided to make her presence known.

"Hey Ash!" she yelled to him as she ran to catch up.

"Huh?" he said, snapping out of his trance.

"Are you ok?" she asked with concern in her voice.

"I guess," Ash replied, uncertain.

She didn't buy it.

"I know when my best friend is upset. What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing, now leave me alone!" he screamed and ran off.

May just stopped right there. She was surprised that he would yell at her like that. She felt betrayed because of that. Why wouldn't he let her help him? Why was he so upset? She felt tears welling up in her eyes, and started running back to base camp. Samus came to the cliff to see what all the commotion was about just in time to see May crying and running back towards base.

**CHAPTER 30**

Thomas heard a door slam upstairs and wondered what the h**l was going on. He went upstairs to find out what was going on and heard crying when he got there. It was on the other side of the door to May's temporary quarters.

"What's got her all worked up?" he wondered aloud.

He decided to leave her alone about it until later, but he was interrupted by Samus when he tried to go back downstairs.

"Did you see May?" she asked.

Thomas pointed a thumb back towards May's room.

"Thanks," she said, and she ran off toward the dormitories.

"Ok, now I'm curious and confused," Thomas said aloud more to himself.

He didn't stay to satisfy his curiosity however. He had work to do. He turned and went back to his post.

**CHAPTER 31**

Jackson was on his way to base with Beremund when he heard something off to his left. Beremund turned faster than he did and was right on top of the source of the noise. The reptilian grabbed something and tossed it out. It was the Predator from earlier, and Beremund wasn't very happy to see him. The Predator switched his communication's device to translate in English and began to speak.

"I am sorry if I frightened you," he said," My job is to protect you and your companions."

"Why?" Jackson asked almost immediately.

"I have my reasons," he replied in his raspy voice," It's more important that you and your companions leave this world however. A battle is coming. If you stay, people in your party will surely die, and I have a feeling you all will be needed for a much larger event."

"What the h**l are you talking about?" Jackson asked," This area is a safe zone and a vantage point."

"Soon it won't be," the alien warned," The enemy will have this area slagged before anyone can put it to use."

Beremund growled, but he didn't attack. Something gave him the feeling that this Predator was right. He sensed no deception from the Predator and in fact detected sincerity in his voice. Jackson turned to Beremund to ask for his opinion. Beremund growled and his translator indicated that Beremund was in agreement with the Predator. It wasn't a good idea to stay. Jackson turned to the Predator to thank him for the warning, but, when he did, the Predator was gone. He ran straight back to base with the news with Beremund close on his heels.

**CHAPTER 32**

Ash came out of the cave to see Scorpion tanks and Wraith tanks all over the field in a rush. All vehicles, in fact, were painted a marine green. Everyone was hustling for a reason unknown to Ash until he looked up to see an enemy fleet approaching. Three allied armadas were moving to intercept. The Arbiter's fleet and a UNSC fleet moved in from one side while a Galactic Republic armada moved in from the other. Ash squinted to see another fleet moving in on the enemy from behind.

Samus came up to him and yelled," Ash, it's time to go!"

"What's going on?" he asked.

"The enemy found us. The Galactic Federation arrived to assist but the enemy fleet is too large. We have to leave," she said as a Warthog pulled up next to them.

"Get in!" Jackson yelled from the driver seat.

They got in. Surprisingly, Ash was the one to take the gunner seat in the back. Samus took the passenger seat and armed her cannon.

"This is gonna be a long day," Jackson said as he hit the gas.

The hog sped off towards base and drove up a ramp to a ship next to the base.

"Everyone else is inside," Jackson said as he cut the engine.

The ramp rose, and the ship shuddered as it took off. They flew directly at a frigate sent by the UNSC, The Heart of Midlothian. May scowled at Ash as he passed by, but she didn't say a word. Ash gave her an apologetic look that made her change her attitude right away. Ash sat next to her.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier," he apologized.

"Y…you are?" she asked, surprised by this.

"Why wouldn't I be? Being stressed out is no reason to yell at a friend," he said with shame in his voice.

She grabbed him in a tight hug. This was a surprise for him; he didn't expect her to forgive him so easily. He didn't care; they were friends again and that's what mattered to him, so he hugged her back. Jackson saw this and smiled before moving to the cockpit.

"What's happening out there?" he asked the copilot.

"A town near your base camp has just been reduced to a molten heap by the Brutes," he said.

"What was the name of that town?" Jackson asked, curious about the situation.

"Well ask her," the pilot said as he jerked a thumb in May's direction," It was her hometown as you said in your report."

This caught Jackson off guard. He would have to explain to May and Ash that an important site had been slagged. That site was May's hometown of all things. He wasn't gonna enjoy telling them. Petalburg had been a big time place in May's eyes, and now, he was gonna tell the kids that the town had been reduced to rubble and that May's family might be dead. Ash wasn't gonna like it either. The boy had shown how much like the Incredible Hulk he was on many occasions. This would be no different. Alex overheard the whole thing and frowned at hearing this.

The com then crackled to life and a man on the other end said," The Brutes have started glassing the planet. Evacuation in progress. All units are to move in and assist in pulling out civilians. All ships open fire on the Brute fleet and ensure that this planet doesn't suffer the same fate as Reach."

Jackson was enraged at this.

"SPEED IT UP!" he yelled into the cockpit, and the dropship jolted as it increased its speed.

'Oh no. Jackson wants a fighter and a chance to blow the enemy out of the sky,' Alex thought,' Those beasts better watch out.'

That was exactly right. Jackson was wanting another Skipray Blastboat right now and a chance to blow the h**l out of all the Brutes out there. This was about to get ugly. Just then, everyone was jolted out of their trains of thought by the sounds of massive explosions outside the Pelican.

"A set of lasers just cut the brute ships out here in half!" the pilot shouted back," and I just got a report that a Brute battle group above LaRousse was just annihilated by a massive wave of energy!"

Just then, a massive vessel flew in front of the Pelican right in their view. It looked very familiar to Jackson. Then it hit him.

"That's a Forerunner ship!" he yelled out.

Everyone got a kick out of that. Two massive robotic looking hovercraft flew by followed by a fleet of smaller ones. They were Sentinels and Enforcers. A massive beam shot from the Forerunner ship, and it cut a Brute Super Carrier in half. The massive vessel exploded under the stress of the attack from the Forerunner forces and disappeared in a ball of blue and yellow flame. An Enforcer flew over the viewport and disappeared from view at the top. Then they heard a clanging sound on the hull. The Enforcer had latched on and was carrying them at increased speeds toward their destination.

"Ok now I'm freaked out. Why are they helping?" Alex asked.

"No idea," Samus replied, just as confused if not more.

They arrived at the Heart of Midlothian in one piece and the Enforcer disappeared back through the hangar door once the Pelican landed. Another explosion was heard as a formation of Forerunner ships fired their collective firepower in a geologically advanced formation of beams at the main Brute battle formation. The Brute ships all disappeared in a massive fireball the size of a moon. Reports started flowing in that the Brutes were retreating due to the arrival of living Forerunners. It was thought that this legendary race was driven extinct by the appearance of the Flood. Everyone was proven wrong today. The Heart of Midlothian formed up next to the Spirit of Fire, and our heroes were all transferred to the massive battleship via shuttle craft. They were surprised to find strangely armored humanoids standing on the hangar deck with all the humans and elites. Jackson was too confused.

**CHAPTER 33**

"Report," Lord Hood demanded.

"Five major cities slagged, more than ten thousand civilian casualties, multiple small towns have fallen out of contact, and we report at least one hundred ships lost in each allied armada," Jackson replied.

"D****t," the elderly military leader blurted out, slamming his fist on the cold metal desk in front of him.

"Among the destroyed villages is the May's hometown, Petalburg," Jackson explained," There is extensive damage to the planetary communications network, and Kanto was the Region that took the most damage."

Lord Hood removed his hat and ran his hand through his white hair before placing the hat back on his head.

"This wasn't the only planet hit," he said," The shipyards around Mars report fifty percent casualties, and Earth…it and the Elite homeworld were perhaps the hardest hit planets in allied space. That's not all; the factories at Pluto have been completely obliterated. The small rock has been turned into an asteroid field."

Jackson was surprised that the Brutes actually managed to destroy a planetoid.

"You can't be serious," he said.

The elderly man could only nod.

"Supply lines are completely cut off from Pluto and we've lost all contact," Lord Hood continued," We sent ships and found only metal debris and an asteroid field in place of the small planet."

Jackson stepped back a bit.

"I think I need time in my quarters to ponder this," he said," Permission to be dismissed?"

"Permission granted," the UNSC leader replied as he sat down letting out an exhausted sigh.

Jackson walked out of Lord Hood's office and left for his quarters without another word. He was surprised that the Brutes managed to get past the border defense undetected. What in the Galaxy is going on?

**CHAPTER 34**

Samus was walking through the corridor 3; starboard side thinking about her new apprentice. May was a kind hearted person that didn't like war but knew when to fight back. However, recent events had started to make May scared and unable to defend herself. Come to think of it, Ash is the reason May is still alive right now. Was it really possible, even in war? She continued to ponder this as she walked toward May's room. Alex walked by and said hi, but Samus didn't respond. He frowned but kept on walking to his destination. She was still deep in thought when the ship shuddered. She snapped out of her train of thought instantaneously. She powered up her arm cannon and prepared for combat, but the com chimed in as she did.

"Sorry about that people, we aren't under attack," the Captain said," We just have an idiot helmsman."

Samus powered down the combat features of her armor and chuckled.

'At least some people can still have a sense of humor during a war,' she thought.

She resumed her walk. She kept walking until someone ran into her and they both fell down.

"I'm so sorry," a familiar teenage voice said," I….Samus?" She looked up and saw Ash.

"Geez, you need to slow down," she said," You were going so fast that you knocked ME down."

Ash laughed," Guess I don't know my own strength."

Samus couldn't help but laugh along. They were cut short by the ship shuddering again.

"Think the helmsman needs a replacement?" Ash said, laughing again.

Samus was about to respond when the intercom chimed again.

"ALERT, ALERT! ALL UNITS TO BATTLE STATIONS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!" Jackson said over the intercom.

"Just when I thought we would finally get a break," Samus said aloud.

"You aren't the only one who's disappointed," Ash stated.

**CHAPTER 35**

May was running through the halls in the new Varia Suit that Samus gave her. It fit perfectly and had an Arm Cannon like Samus' suit. It was colored red with white patches on the shoulders and helmet that were in the same shape as the white patch on her bandana. She ran into Ash and Samus on the way to the bridge.

"What the!" Ash exclaimed when he saw May. He obviously didn't recognize her in the new suit. She removed her helmet to show who she was.

"Didn't recognize me did you?" she teased.

Ash was dumbfounded.

"Were did you get that armor?" he asked.

"Samus gave it to me," May said," part of the training deal I guess."

"Are you two done?" Samus asked rather sarcastically.

Just then, the wall burst open, and three unusually ugly figures came out of the boarding craft that caused the explosion. One was a hulking figure with menacing armor and hulking strength. The other two were the average height of a full grown human being and they seemed to be very skinny and flexible.

"Space Pirates!" Samus yelled.

"We can take em'," May confidently challenged as she powered up her weapon and aimed.

"This is new," Ash thought aloud as Samus and May engaged the enemy.

It was barely one minute since they engaged in combat when the last enemy fell with a loud thud.

"That was too easy," Samus laughed.

They all ran for the bridge.

"Why didn't they bridge report boarding craft?" Ash asked.

He was answered by an alert over the intercom.

"All units, be on guard. Stealthed boarding craft have latched on and are pouring some unwelcome visitors into the halls," Jackson said.

Soldiers were everywhere. Suddenly, one of the strange armored humanoids from earlier appeared at an intersection up ahead. It fired an unusual weapon at some hostile forces, and the resulting explosion completely obliterated them. The figure looked at Samus, Ash, and May and then ran toward the source of sounds of combat. They were just confused and dumbfounded at this character's actions.

**CHAPTER 36**

Jackson stared out the viewport at the massive enemy fleet in front of his forces.

"Get me MAC control!" he yelled out.

A crew member yelled," YES SIR!" and ran out.

The missile pods fired a salvo at an enemy frigate and caused it to go dark.

"ENEMY DOWN!" yelled an excited crew member.

The Forerunner ship accompanying them fired almost instantly after the Spirit of Fire got a kill. The beam cut right through the middle of the enemy formation and made five enemy ships go dark. Five more down for the count. Samus, Ash, and May ran onto the bridge and looked out at the ensuing chaos in front of the allied fleet and saw a fighter marked as the Arbiter's zoom past the viewport in pursuit of three enemy Seraphs and a craft that looked half organic. One of the massive, organic vessels belonging to the Space Pirates fired a laser at the allied fleet and made a nearby cruiser go nova. It was destroyed instantly by the Spirit of Fire's missiles. It was then that a sudden explosion occurred in the back of the bridge. The boarders opened fire on the crew almost instantaneously, and May and Samus fired in unison. Ash pulled an SMG out and started pelting the enemy forces. Jackson was a man of action and decided to join the fight. The pack on his back started shifting as armor deployed out of it and encased Jackson's body. Around his hands were two massive plasma cannons which grabbed the attention of the enemy instantly. When the enemy's weapons hit him, the shots bounced off or dissipated harmlessly. He raised the cannons and slammed them together, causing them to shift into an even more powerful weapon. He fired a beam at the enemy group in the back of the bridge, and they all went down or turned to dust. Enemies were still there though, and they continued to fire. A Brute Spiker managed to get a shot in Ash's left leg. He was swept off his feet as the needle pushed his left leg from under him. He fell to the ground, hit his head, and stopped moving.

"ASH!" screamed a worried May, and she charged the enemy while firing a massive barrage of rockets and plasma bolts.

The enemy went down after 3 minutes of a show of rage from May. Jackson's armor and weapons retracted to reveal a dumbfounded man. Half the crew was surprised while the rest cowered under their chairs and workstations. Samus couldn't move an inch. May, however, ran over to Ash and fell to her knees next to him. She picked him up in her arms and tried to shake him awake. No good. She yelled his name a couple times. Still no good. She was about to give up when she remembered the medical tool that came with the Varia Suit. May triggered the device, and out popped the medical device. She pulled the needle out of Ash's leg and aimed the device at the wound. When the energy flowed, the wound healed. She aimed at the bleeding spot on Ash's head and fired of another wave of the strange energy. It no longer looked like he hit his head in the first place. She keyed the suits systems off and it glowed and dissipated. The molecules went straight to the storage device in her fanny pack. It was nothing but the jacket, bandana, and shorts left. She tried to shake him awake again but failed.

"Ash, wake up, please," she sobbed.

Jackson walked up and put a hand on her shoulder. Samus was still standing on the spot, surprised as ever. May started to cry over Ash's seemingly lifeless body. At least he seemed lifeless until he started to breathe again and opened his eyes a bit.

He looked at May and asked in a weak voice," Why are you crying?"

At hearing his voice, she opened her eyes and looked at him. Everyone in the room seemed to let out the breath they were all holding in. Several sighs of relief and several cheers sounded around the bridge. Jackson kneeled opposite May and looked at Ash.

"We all thought you were dead," he said," When you went down, May went into a frenzy and annihilated the enemy forces attacking the bridge. The hostile fleet is in retreat because of the loss of their boarding parties. After that, she moved to patch you up. You are one lucky dog."

Some of the people on the bridge laughed lightly. One of the laughing people, however, was the strange figure Samus and the kids ran into in the hall minutes ago. He was laughing too, and his helmet was off. He looked completely human, but the armor screamed Forerunner. Ash looked at him and smiled.

"Having a laugh are we?" he asked in a joking manner. The Forerunner smiled and walked out. Everyone continued laughing though. Jackson and May were the ones laughing the hardest.

Samus walked over and said," Now that was one impressive display."

May smiled and looked up at her.

"Thanks Samus," she said cheerily.

The fight was over, and everyone went about their business. A repair team came to fix the hole in the wall of the bridge after repairing everything else. Jackson didn't mind what order they did everything in; he just wanted everything to get done. Ash and May went back to their quarters, and Samus went to her gunship to make some adjustments to the weapons system. Everything was back to normal for now. Jackson still frowned though. He still had to tell Ash and May about the destruction of Petalburg City. That wouldn't be fun, considering it was May's hometown, and considering the fact that Planet RD13 was their homeworld, they were still a little shaken up by the fact that the planet was attacked in the first place. It was gonna be a long trip to Reach.

**CHAPTER 37**

They entered orbit above the historical world of Reach. Once the strongest planetary fortress in the UNSC, it was now under reconstruction in order to recover the planet from the effects of the Covenant attack more than a decade ago during the Human-Covenant war. He looked at the partially scorched planet and sighed. This planet was nearly rendered lifeless in the past. The UNSC had only one reason to want it back. The Forerunner technology hidden underground on the planet needed to be studied at first, but now the Forerunners were back and it was decided that the technology would be returned to them. Word had spread that Lord Hood had a meeting with the leaders of the Forerunners to determine the terms of their presence. Being the honorable peace lovers they were, they decided to live in harmony with the Humans and Elites. They would help end the war and aid in maintaining a military defense in the area, and they would help maintain a strong economy in the area. That was a bonus everyone liked hearing about. Jackson was only wondering how much they would help. Considering the assistance they gave above Ash and May's homeworld, he was thinking that worrying about it was a waste of time. Everyone hated the Brutes, and the reason was quite apparent. The Brutes have been warmongerers from day one, and everyone had a sample of their strength in war. It was a lucky shot that the Brutes were not experts in space combat. All they knew was strength in muscle, tech, and numbers. They barely had any grasp on the concept of strategy, so the simultaneous attacks on RD13, Earth, Sanghelios, Mars, and Pluto were a clear sign that the Brutes had a strategically advanced ally. Jackson could only wonder who would help the Brutes breach the Human-Elite Defense Perimeter undetected and attack with such amazing force. RD13 survived only because the Forerunners managed to make a timely appearance. It wasn't timely enough to save May's hometown though. Not to mention all the poor souls that lost their lives that day. What was happening? Why were the Brutes being so hostile right now? Their war-loving nature couldn't be the only reason. There was someone else pulling the strings somewhere on the sidelines. He was gonna find out who.

**CHAPTER 38**

They docked at the orbital supply station to collect ammunition, food, and fuel. Ash and May were sent to lead convoy that would bring back the food and fuel. It was lucky that the station had such wide corridors for vehicles to move through. The place was more of an orbital city than a supply station in Ash's eyes.

The captain chimed in," Sir, were five clicks from the supply point. Would you like us to prepare the loaders now?"

"Go ahead," Ash said into the com.

He turned his attention back to his immediate surroundings. He was in the passenger seat at the front of the Hog. May was in the back getting the fuel pumps ready. The driver was Sierra 116, or Thomas, as his friends called him. Thomas was a few ranks above the Chief and was Jackson's right hand man years ago during the final stages of the Human-Covenant war. Thomas and Jackson were almost like brothers, not in blood but in bond. Ash snapped out of it. He had a task to take care of, but he couldn't help turning his attention to May. She was his best friend. They got along real well and Ash had saved her time and time again. She saved him less than sixteen hours ago on the Spirit of Fire's bridge when he was nearly killed by a hard hit to his head when he was swept off his feet by a Brute Spiker. He couldn't thank her enough for saving him, and he certainly couldn't thank Samus enough for making his friend into a hard core fighter. May still had her original personality. The only difference was her increased skills in hand to hand combat. Back on their homeworld she had been a Pokémon coordinator; not anymore. Ash had once had a dream of his own back home. He had a huge decision to make however that would determine whether the planet died or not. He diverted his path from his dream to save the planet that the UNSC called RD13. Now it was at risk again. He wanted to help the UNSC fight this war. He had left his little buddy back on the ship earlier. He had no choice. He wasn't allowed to bring pets onto the station, though Pikachu wasn't a pet. The Hog lurched as it stopped at the supply station. Thomas got out and took the hose from one of the fuel loading stations and plugged it into a valve on top of the tank in the back of the hog. This wasn't so bad though. It was a moment of peace. There wasn't any fighting at the moment. Why let it be ruined by negative thought? May came up behind him and tapped his shoulder. He turned to see the brunette smiling.

"You're in a good mood," he said.

She giggled and motioned for him to follow. He did. They arrived a viewport that gave a breathtaking view of Reach. The far side of the planet was lighting up as the planet turned. Soon the light reached past the horizon and into the view of the station. "Wow," he breathed," It's amazing." May smiled, closed her eyes, and leaned on his shoulder. He blushed at this, but he didn't say anything. He didn't want to ruin the peaceful moment. No fighting, no death, no destruction, just him and his friends, and a view that could entrance anyone. They just sat there looking at the sight when Thomas interrupted.

"Sorry to interrupt," he said.

Ash turned and saw a sly smile on Thomas' face.

"What?" Ash asked a little confused.

"Don't give me that," Thomas laughed," I know what's going on."

He stopped laughing and smiled.

"I'll leave you two alone," he said, and he walked off.

May looked at him and decided not to worry about it. She turned back to the viewport and put her head back on Ash's shoulder. This time he didn't blush; he just turned back to the viewport and put his head on May's.

"I guess we should find time to do this more often," he said. May just sighed and fell asleep.

**CHAPTER 39**

It had been two hours since the Spirit of Fire detached from the supply station orbiting Reach. It was time to resume their journey. It had been just over a week and they were already on their first official wartime assignment. They were leading a strike force to find and destroy any shipyards belonging to the Brutes. Lord Hood had personally assigned a more important task to General Jackson. Jackson was pondering his new role as leader of a primary assault fleet. He was supposed to find the center of all Brute activity in the area and destroy the enemy HQ. He also had to find any form of data and documentation that might unravel the mystery to why the Brutes started this war. He was also hoping to find out how the Brutes managed to actually gain CONTROL over Xenomorphs and Moorwens. He was still confused. He then remembered the new recruit. It was time to give him the training he requested. That very recruit was in the waiting room just outside his office right now.

"Gunner, you may come in," he said into the intercom.

The door opened, and the young soldier walked in.

"You want to see me sir?" Gunner asked.

"Actually yes," the General said," I want you to report to the Spartan Suite of the ship. I'll contact the Master Chief. It's time to train you."

The soldier smiled and gave a crisp salute.

"I won't let you down sir," he said.

"Alright then," the General encouraged," Get down there and show em' what you're made of."

"YES SIR!" Gunner yelled, and he ran off with a huge smile on his face.

Jackson smiled at the enthusiastic soldier and keyed the com to tell the Chief the news and assign the task of training Gunner to him.

**CHAPTER 40**

Alex was running through the hall with Thomas. A disturbance had occurred near the fleet's position, and they needed to tell the General.

"Jackson's not gonna like this!" Thomas yelled.

"I know!" Alex yelled back," But someone has to tell him!"

Thomas grunted his disapproval but kept going. This wouldn't stop him. The ship shuddered some, but no one noticed the problem. It shuddered again, and people started to know that something was wrong.

"AW CRAP!" Thomas blurted out.

The alarms started blaring and the two Spartans stopped.

"Well he knows now!" Alex yelled over the alarms.

"You think!" Thomas yelled back.

An explosion shook the ship again and something flew past the viewport next to them.

"What was that?" Alex asked sounding a bit frightened.

A clang rang throughout the bulkhead as a kind of space-faring dragon attached to the hull and looked through the viewport.

"HOLY S**T!" The two Spartans blurted out.

The dragon was about to strike the viewport when something hit it from outside. It was Samus. Her suit was protecting her from the vacuum of space. She fired several shots into the beast's cranium. It seemed to roar in agony. Samus jumped off and fired several more shots. The creature aimed its head and fire a red beam from its mouth directly at Samus. She barely dodged in time. Just then, her ship came out of nowhere and rammed the back of the dragon's head. The thing seemed to roar again. The ship turned and opened its wingtips. It fired the laser cannons concealed inside and the dragon was pushed back a bit. The thing eyed Samus with malice and charged. Samus fired several shots into the thing's mouth and dodged it. It tumbled into space, out of control.

**CHAPTER 41**

Samus entered the ship through Airlock B-12 to see Alex and Thomas standing there in complete shock.

"What the h**l was that thing?" Thomas asked.

"That was Ridley," she answered, my archenemy.

"There's a surprise," Alex said sarcastically.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Samus inquired.

"JUST LOOK AT THE WAY YOU WERE FIGHTING HIM!" he yelled back," THAT WAS BRUTAL!"

"But necessary," she countered.

Alex just gaped at her.

"Now is not the time to…" Thomas couldn't finish because he heard someone running towards them.

"GUYS!," yelled a familiar voice.

Ash turned the corner at a run, nearly slipping and falling in the process.

"GUYS, I NEED HELP!" he yelled.

"What's wrong ash," Alex asked, concerned for his friend.

"It's May," Ash said," She's hurt bad. I'm not a medic, but I'm pretty sure that she might die if someone doesn't help!"

"What happened?" Thomas asked.

"She was caught in one of the explosions that the dragon thing caused," He answered.

"That dragon was Samus' archenemy, Ridley," Alex sadly stated.

"OUT OF THE WAY! COMING THROUGH!" Thomas yelled as he and Ash ran off towards May's location pushing through a group of marines as they went.

Half of the marines just stared at them skeptically while the rest just looked like they were slapped across the face.

"Come on. We better help." Alex said.

Samus nodded in agreement, and they ran after their two worried friends.

"If Ash does anything stupid…" Alex started, but Samus cut him off.

"Don't say what I think you're about to say," she told him.

Alex shut up quick. They ran around a corner to find Thomas tending to May's wounds and Ash on his hands and knees opposite Thomas. He had his hand on May's forehead to check her temperature.

"She's burning up," Ash said.

"Come on. Let's get her to med bay stat," Thomas said quickly.

"I NEED A GURNEY OVER HERE!" he yelled at the surrounding people.

"Move it. Coming through. Excuse me," a medic kept saying as he came running over pulling a gurney behind him. Ash picked May up and put her on the gurney, and he, Thomas, Alex, and Samus followed the medic to the med bay.

"Wait out here," Thomas told the others as they arrived at Emergency Room A-13. Alex and Samus nodded in compliance, but Ash was skeptical and would not leave his friend's side for a moment.

"NO WAY!" he yelled at the medical expert.

"Fine. You can come," Thomas said reluctantly," Everyone else, stay put!"

With that, he and Ash ran into the emergency room and the door locked. Samus sat on a nearby bench and triggered the helmet retraction unit. The helmet glowed and disappeared just like the first time Ash and May saw her. She put her head in her hands and sighed.

"Will we ever get a break?" she asked no one in particular.

"Like that'll happen with Brutes, Space Pirates, and monsters trying to find us and kill us," Alex replied.

Samus leaned back and sighed again.

"One of these days, I'm gonna kill Ridley once and for all," she said.

"Worried that your apprentice might not make it?" Alex asked her.

"You have no idea," she answered as she looked at him.

Alex smiled and sat next to her.

"I know how you feel," he said," I had an apprentice myself once. He died of course."

"What happened to him?" she asked.

"A f*****g space dragon, that's what," he said angrily.

"Ridley?" she queried.

"Yeah," Alex answered as he lowered his head and removed his own helmet.

He frowned when he looked back up at the wall across the hallway. He was staring off into space remembering what happened that day.

"It was a dark and stormy night. We were in the Eridanus System traveling to Eridanus 12, the planet where our home base was located. When we landed, we got a warm welcome from the commander there," he explained," thirty minutes later, that freak dragon appears with some armored fire-breathing dragon behind him. They killed almost everyone. Me and a few others survived and managed to get a transmitter working so we could call for help. My apprentice was among those who died at Ridley's hand. To this day, I hope that I can get vengeance upon that monster space dragon and blow his brains out. He killed someone very close to me that day when he killed my apprentice. My apprentice was my little brother."

Samus frowned and looked back down at the floor.

"Looks like we have something in common," she said.

"Yeah? What's that?" Alex asked curiously.

"Ridley took family from both of us," she answered," He killed my parents when I was a little girl."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Alex stated in sympathy," Seems like those days were stressful for everyone."

"You can say that again," Samus sighed as she leaned back on the bench.

**CHAPTER 42**

"Again," the Chief said to his new student.

Gunner carried out the level-20 virtual training program with ease and only a second to spare on the time limit.

"Not bad," the Chief said enthusiastically," Not bad at all."

He clapped for the success of his student.

"You're a natural Spartan Gunner," he complimented.

"Thank you sir," Gunner said.

"You don't have to call me sir," the Chief told him," Just call me John."

"Thanks John," Gunner laughed as he sat down on the bench.

The holo-projectors powered down as the final level statement concluded.

"PHEW!" Gunner blurted out as he sat down," Now that was intense."

"You've advanced faster than anyone else on this ship Gunner," John said," You should be proud."

"I am," Gunner happily stated," I'm just tuckered out."

"Aren't we all?" John asked sarcastically," go get some rest soldier. You did well today."

"Thank you si…uhh…John," he said, correcting himself as he went.

He left to rest up in the bunk room.

"Chief," a female voice called from behind him.

John turned to see his old comrade, Kelly.

"Well, well, well. What a pleasant surprise," he said enthusiastically," are things going well for you?"

"Things could be better, but that's what happens in war," she laughed. "Come on. Let's go to the cafeteria," she suggested.

The Chief followed her out with a smile. It was good to see old friends.

**CHAPTER 43**

In the prison block of the Spirit of Fire, a particular Sith Assassin was plotting his escape.

'When did the enemy get the technology to detect cloaked vessels so easily?' he thought to himself as he remembered how he ended up in this cell in the first place.

His companions had been executed only a day ago due to their involvement in the 'disappearance' of three very important diplomats.

'Three counts of crime involvement and the crime was murder. Where am I gonna get help now?' he wondered.

The sound of a machine powering up indicated that the ship was moving again.

'Another uncomfortable ride,' he thought,' At least I won't be in here much longer.'

Two soldiers walked by then.

"Did you hear General Jackson at the debriefing?" the first one asked.

"He was p****d. I have never heard anyone yell that loud our seen anyone break a table like that," the other replied.

"That Ridley sure can make a mess," the first one continued.

"You can say that again," the other replied and they walked off laughing.

'So the General is on the ship at this very moment,' the assassin pondered,' I should strike when the next fight occurs.'

That was his final decision. He would break out the next time the ship was attacked and kill General Jackson in the confusion.

**CHAPTER 44**

Samus was now waiting by herself for the recovery of her apprentice. Across the hall was Emergency Room A-13. Alex had left for the cafeteria a while ago. She heard a sound to her left and looked to see a little yellow rodent. It was Pikachu.

'Oh crap,' she thought,' When he finds out what happened…I don't want to think about it.'

She tried to shift her thoughts to something else as the little rodent hopped onto the bench next to Samus. He didn't make a sound and looked rather sad. Did he already know what happened? Another sound came from the direction Pikachu came from. Samus looked to see Ash at the corner coming back from the cafeteria. Samus had forgotten that Ash went with Alex. He sat down hoping that his friend would be alright.

"You ok?" the female warrior asked him.

"I…I'm not sure," he replied," She's been in there a while. I keep hoping she'll be alright."

"They said that she took the blunt of that blast," Samus said.

Ash cringed at the thought of that.

"Sorry," Samus said, noticing his discomfort at learning that.

She saw a tear run down his cheek.

"Pika?" came Pikachu's reaction to seeing his master crying.

He decided that Ash just needed some professional advice and hopped off the bench. He reluctantly left them without another sound. Samus continued to look at Ash with pity. She wished she could do something, but her medical device was undergoing nano-repairs in order to fix the damage from overuse and overheating. For the first time in years, Samus felt helpless and useless. Ash started sobbing and caught Samus off guard.

"There, there," she said, placing a hand on his back, "May is strong. She'll come through."

Ash didn't lighten up. Then Samus had a thought.

'Could he possibly think of May as more than a friend?' she pondered.

She decided not to press the matter. Ash needed alone time, so Samus stood and left.

**CHAPTER 45**

Pikachu was walking silently through the starboard main corridor thinking about his master's depression. He couldn't help but feel sorry for the boy. Suddenly he was snatched out of his train of thought by the ship shaking violently for a moment. A loud clang resounded through the hull. Suddenly, the wall next to Pikachu exploded, and the little yellow rodent barely dodged in time. Through the hull came a team of strange looking bipeds. A closer look revealed that they were Phazon Enhanced Space Pirates. Several shouts resounded through the halls and then many Elites, Marines, and Galactic Federation Troopers came and surrounded the enemy squad. One of the Space Pirates, the leader from the looks of him, barked several commands to his subordinates and they all took cover and opened fire. The Marines and Elites followed suit. The Galactic Federation Troopers however didn't take cover. Instead, they flipped the switches on their wristbands and a Phazon-like aura started emenating from their weapons and armor. Phazon Enhancement Devices were doing this. The soldiers then opened fire as their PED upgrades sent them into hypermode. Phazon energy flew in both directions, but bullets and plasma bolts were only flying in one. Pikachu jumped between the two parties of combatants and launched a massive bolt of lightning right at the Space Pirate leader. He went down after being roasted by electrical energy for about thirty seconds. Then, BANG, Samus burst through the door behind the hostile boarders and fired several green bolts of energy at the enemy. She was using the nova beam. BAP, down went one, and, BAP, down went another. Pikachu bolted at the enemy, electrical energy surrounding him as he went and, BANG, he knocked three Space Pirates dead. A hail of Phazon energy bolts from the GF Troopers brought down five more enemies. Then Samus did something unexpected. She charged her weapon and fired a massive beam of blue-white energy at the remaining hostiles. It was the Zero-Beam. Soon, the place where the last few enemies stood was another Ground Zero. The GF Troopers powered down their PED units and went back to patrolling as if nothing had happened. Pikachu and the Marines and Elites just stared at the spot where the Zero-Beam had impacted as if they had been slapped across the face. Samus looked at the multiple holes in all the walls behind the remains of the Space Pirate boarding party. Only one empty boarding craft remained in place. There was only one though. Had the enemy sent an elite team to do a certain job? Were these Space Pirates that elite team? What was going on? Everyone decided to move on and let the investigation teams handle that. Damage teams would arrive soon to repair the damage.

**CHAPTER 46**

The starboard hangar was bustling. A strike team was about to be sent out and preparations had to be flawless. A certain 5-star General stood in front of a crowd of Special Ops Marines and Elites giving them a pep talk and briefing them on the mission. Next to the General stood the Spartan he met in the Southern District. The General had reached the basic point of the operation now.

"All in all," he said," your job is to sneak in undetected and steal the data we need. No doubt, the enemy will find you out once you gain possession of the data. You'll then fight your way out and steal a well armored and high speed ship to get out of there. It will be the same type of ship that the data you're stealing refers to. Good luck boys, you drop in ten." The ODST Marines and Spec Ops Elites scattered to their individual tasks to prepare for the upcoming mission.

"Nice speech," Alex complemented.

"Bah, it was nothing," Jackson stated rather plainly. Alex just laughed as they went to check on the pods that the soldiers would be using in their insertion. The planet they were orbiting brought back painful memories for Alex, but the Spartan tried to hide it. He wasn't doing too well, however, because Jackson was getting ready to ask him what was wrong. He was stopped by one of the nearby doors sliding open and a certain young man walking in. Behind him followed the little yellow rodent that was involved in stopping a Space Pirate boarding party from succeeding in their mission. The boy seemed upset for some reason.

"Hey Alex," Jackson called," Isn't that Ash?"

"Yeah," came the reply," Seems like he's still upset about May ending up in an Emergency Room."

"Oh God, is he still upset about that?" Jackson asked.

"Why wouldn't he be?" he answered," She is his best human friend."

"Got a point there," Jackson stated in defeat.

"I'll go talk to him," Alex said," You should finish things up here."

"Yeah," Jackson said as he reluctantly turned back to prepping the pods. Alex walked over to Ash.

"Still upset about what happened?" he asked the boy.

"They said she took the full brunt of that blast," the boy said sadly," She might not live through this."

"So that's why you're still upset," Alex said," Don't worry, Thomas has things well in hand. He should have May feeling better real soon. That Spartan is a Medical Specialist, and he has the experience to show it."

Ash perked up a bit, but only a bit. He obviously had turned from teenage hero of RD13 to depressed teen very quickly. The boy was actually seeing how dangerous this situation was. The war was getting out of hand and it had only been going on for less than two weeks. No one understood how or why the war had started in the first place with exception of a select few. Alex was beginning to wonder how bad the odds were. He continued to ponder why everything was affecting Ash so badly. The history books indicated that the boy had seen plenty of conflict of all sorts. That left the war out of the question. There was also his being unable to leave the group due to what he knew. No, he enjoyed being with his military friends. There was only one other thing: May's condition. But why would that affect him so badly…unless. Alex's thoughts about their relationship were starting to surface again. Could he really feel that way about someone? He needed answers, and he was gonna get them one way or another. But, now wasn't the time. He needed to wait for the right moment. Alex decided to go back to work.

"I'll talk to you later," he told the boy as he stood up," I have some work to do."

With that he walked off and returned to helping the General prep the pods.

**CHAPTER 47**

The Chief, Kelly, and Gunner were heading towards the hangar. They received word about an hour ago that they were being assigned a very important task.

"What do you think they need us for?" Kelly asked the two men.

"Considering that we're Spartans, I think it might involve a suicide mission," the Chief said.

"Oh great, I've had enough of those to last me ten lifetimes," Kelly complained.

"Hey, we're Spartans, we don't complain," Gunner explained enthusiastically. Kelly and John couldn't help laughing.

"Thanks for that Gunner," Kelly said happily, her good mood returning.

"Any time," Gunner replied, giving a thumbs up.

The Chief smiled at this. At least people could still be cheerful at times during war. They turned the corner and walked into Briefing Room A-2.

"Spartans, thank you for coming," Jackson said," Please take a seat."

The General motioned for them to sit in the three unoccupied chairs in the room. They sat down.

"I have some good news Spartans," the General stated happily," We've located five major enemy operations in the system. Things are turning in our favor."

"Might I ask what factions are involved in these operations?" the Chief asked politely.

"One is a Space Pirate Operation, and we've determined that Samus' nemesis, Ridley, is holed up in the Space Pirate Base located in this sector," he stated.

"Three others are owned by the Brutes alone," Jackson continued," and the last one is owned by both the Space Pirates and the Brutes. It is this Operation that you will be scouting out and halting." The General gestured to a shadowy corner of the room, and Samus stepped out of the shadows.

"Samus will join you in this operation and will be taking you there on her gunship," the man concluded.

"Sounds difficult," Kelly stated.

"We can do this no problem," Gunner said enthusiastically.

"I know you will Spartans," Jackson said smiling," I know you can. Don't fail us people. Good luck."

He finished off with a crisp salute which they all returned.

"Dismissed," the General said, the smile never leaving his face. He was confident that his fine warriors wouldn't fail him. They ended the salute and left the briefing room. Jackson sat down in his seat silently wishing the soldiers luck.

**CHAPTER 48**

A massive mechanical roaring sounded throughout the hangar as Samus' gunship launched. Alex watched as the vessel departed through the hangar shields.

"Looks like the action is gonna start soon," he said to himself.

The gunship warped into hyperspace as he finished his thought. Seconds later, the Spirit of Fire lurched as it entered hyperspace and the view of stars was replaced by the darkness of slipspace. The men were in a rush preparing fighters and bombers and preparing the ship's weapons.

'Are we headed for a battle or something?' Alex wondered.

"Attention all units, we will be entering the battle zone in t-minus five minutes," Jackson's voice came over the loudspeakers," I want everyone ready to fight in three. That is all."

The loudspeakers clicked as they switched back to the hangar control channel.

'I guess we are,' Alex concluded,' God help us all.'

**CHAPTER 49**

Thomas was running through the halls hoping to reach his fighter in time. Behind him, a young teenage boy was following closely.

"How much further?" Ash yelled to him.

"A little more," came Thomas' reply.

Ash was going to be his gunner in this fight. They ran through the next set of doors to see a massive hangar before them. The ship closest to them was a modified Longsword Fighter.

"That's mine," Thomas said as he pointed to the ship.

The wingtips had plasma cannons built in place on them, and there was a gun turret on top just above the center of the ship. A second turret was on the bottom right below the first.

"The turrets are linked and the individual cannons are programmed in a way that prevents us from damaging our own ship," Thomas explained," There is an advanced medical system inside, and an energy shield is present. You have the turrets Ash."

"This'll be fun," the boy said rather sarcastically.

They boarded the craft and started warming it up. Just then, the hangar control officer's voice sounded through the com on the craft.

"Attention pilots, as soon as we drop out of slipspace, you will launch," the officer explained," move fast and never fly straight and you'll be home for dinner. Happy hunting boys."

As soon as he finished, the ship reverted back to realspace, and the darkness of slipspace was replaced by a huge starscape and an enemy fleet.

"LAUNCH," the officer yelled, and the ships all launched including Thomas' Longsword.

As soon as they passed through the hangar shield, the ship next to them exploded. The Longsword shook a bit but held true.

"Here goes," Thomas said," HANG ON KID!"

He increased the speed and the fighter lurched forward. They already had bogeys on their tail.

"Tangos on our six," Ash yelled up.

"Roger, drive em' off," came the response.

Ash pulled the trigger and the bullets went flying. He missed. The enemy Seraph had swerved to the right and opened fire. Suddenly, a flash appeared in the corner of Thomas' eye. He turned his head to see a slipspace rupture and the Truth and Reconciliation coming out. It was followed by several more ships coming out of slipspace. A fleet of marine green covenant ships was now visible in the area; the Arbiter had arrived.

"LOOK OUT," Ash yelled up.

Thomas looked over to see three enemy Seraphs and a plasma torpedo headed their way. He swerved left and dove toward the enemy, spinning and shooting as he went. The torpedo exploded in front of the enemy and then the enemy fighters were destroyed by the continuous fire. Ash turned the turret and took an enemy Seraph off their tail.

"Nice shot," Thomas complimented.

"Thanks," the boy said.

Then the radio crackled to life.

"To all units, this is not a drill, enemy super weapon detected," came the voice of the general," All units scatter. I repeat, all units scatter!"

Everyone started moving farther away from each other. Thomas followed suit. Just then, a huge flash filled the space and a beam was fired from somewhere in the enemy fleet. The massive plasma beam impacted with one of the Arbiter's ships and split it in half.

"All units are ordered to return to your home vessel and retreat. All uni…" The com was cut off for a moment and then came back on," ALERT, DAMAGE TO THE SPIRIT OF FIRE," Jackson yelled," DECKS FIVE AND TWELVE DAMAGED!"

Thomas' eyes widened. Ash gasped. May was on deck twelve. Just then, another flash filled the space, but it wasn't the enemy super weapon. Samus had come out of hyperspace in her gunship and was firing her lasers at the enemy. Two missiles flew out to meet her but were shot out of the air. Three more ships came out of slipspace behind her. The Forerunners had sent aid. Three Longswords left one of the ships and flew to join Thomas in a battle formation.

"Miss us?" came the Chiefs voice over the com.

"Glad you made it," Thomas replied," Form up on me. We're gonna find that super weapon."

"Roger that," came Gunner's voice.

With that they all veered in the direction of the enemy fleet.

**CHAPTER 50**

Alex ran through the halls of deck 12 at blinding speed. He was trying to help evacuate the deck before it decompressed. Deck 12 was compromised and was about to be vented free of oxygen to prevent the decompression. There were three people left to evacuate from the deck. One was at gunnery station 14 on the starboard side. Another was a medic in the Emergency Block A. The last one was a young teenage girl in Emergency Room A-12. He rushed toward the gunnery station first. As the door opened to let him through, a man rushed through the door and ran straight into him.

"WHAT THE…WHATS THE BIG IDEA?" he screamed.

"I'm evacuating the deck and you are one of three people that need to be pulled out," Alex replied.

"Oh, sorry," the man apologized.

He was a marine, a Sergeant First Class.

"Come on, our next objectives are both in Emergency Block A," Alex said.

He started running that way with the marine in tow.

"Isn't that where that girl who's such a big deal is at?" He yelled up.

"Yeah, and we have to get her out along with a top class medic," he yelled back in response.

They went through the door and ran into the Emergency Block. They saw a man running back and forth grabbing some medical supplies and putting them in a case. He finished and turned to see Alex and the marine.

"We evacuating?" the medic asked as the ship shuddered like it had so many times during the battle.

"Yeah," Alex said.

They ran to Emergency Room A-12 to see May stumbling out the door. Alex scooped her up from in front of the door and continued his run, changing course for the elevator as he went. The marine and the medic were doing their best to keep up. They arrived at the elevator, and Alex pushed the call button. There was no response. He pushed again. The door opened and they filed in. He put the girl down at the back of the elevator and pushed the button for the bridge. As the door closed, they heard a muffled hissing on the other side of it. They had gotten to the elevator just in time. As deck 12 vented, they rode the elevator to the bridge. They door chimed and opened to reveal a whole bunch of officers working frantically, running back and forth, and yelling back and forth at each other. They saw Jackson yelling at a lower ranking officer and ran over to him. The General turned to see them and smiled at the sight of May.

"Looks like you're feeling better," he said.

"More or less," she replied," Where's Ash?"

Jackson pointed at a screen with Thomas' Longsword on display, the turret on top blazing away at who knows what.

"He's Thomas' gunner right now," Jackson stated.

May gasped as when she saw the ship take a hit. The shot was absorbed right away by the shield.

"Don't worry," Jackson said," That ship is tough as nails."

"SIR, MAC CONTROL REPORTS A MALFUNCTION," yelled a lower ranking officer.

It was the Weapons Control Officer.

"D**n," Jackson cursed," GET A DAMAGE TEAM DOWN THERE ASAP!"

"YES SIR," the Weapons Officer yelled back.

"TARGET ACQUIRED," another officer yelled.

"FIRE MISSILE BARRAGE," Jackson yelled.

At that moment the ship shuddered and several smoky streaks appeared in the viewport.

"ALL MISSILES ON TARGET," yet another officer yelled.

The missiles impacted with a purple and silver colored Covenant Cruiser, and the ship exploded.

"IMPACT! TARGET DESTROYED," an officer cheered.

A blue laser appeared in the viewport and cut through another hostile ship. The explosion was tremendous and blinding.

"HOSTILE SHIP DESTROYED," one of the officers yelled.

"TARGET ACQUIRED," yelled another.

"FIRE ALL WEAPONS," the General yelled.

The ship shuddered heavily as several more smoky streaks appeared in the viewport followed by shells from the ship's cannons. All were converging on a massive enemy vessel: a Covenant Super Carrier. The missiles and shells impacted, and flames erupted from the starboard side of the craft.

"ENEMY CRAFT HEAVILY DAMAGED," an officer yelled," STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY FAILING!"

"SIR, MAC GUNS ARE READY," the Weapons Officer chimed in.

"FIRE MAC GUN AT THE TARGET," the General yelled at him.

"SIR," came the reply.

The ship shuddered as the Mac Guns fired. The shells streaked at amazing speed toward the super carrier and it exploded.

"IMPACT," another officer yelled," TARGET DESTROYED!"

Several cheers erupted throughout the bridge. Jackson smiled at the small victory. Another laser passed into view just then and cut through one of the enemy orbital defense stations. The station disappeared in a flash of brilliant white light. More cheers erupted throughout the bridge as the massive, 'indestructible' station seemingly dissipated.

"DEFENSE STATION DOWN," the unit deployment officer yelled," LAUNCHING TROOP TRANSPORTS! INITIATING PLANETARY ASSAULT!"

Several craft appeared in the viewport flying toward the blue-green planet that was once blocked from view by an orbital defense station. Several enemy fighters attempted to attack the troop transports. They all failed as they disappeared behind a massive beam of plasma fired from the Truth and Reconciliation.

"Send a message of thanks to the Arbiter," Jackson instructed the officer next to him. The official nodded and walked off to the com station.

**CHAPTER 51**

Thomas was in total synch with the battle. He swerved left to dodge a missile then barrel rolled right and fired at the enemy that fired the missile. Ash fired another burst from the turret and took out three enemy Seraphs. The Longsword lurched forward as Thomas boosted the speed. They dived toward an enemy cruiser and fired a few missiles into the engines. The resulting explosion nearly devastated the rear of the hostile ship. Ash fired into one of the openings, and another explosion erupted from the ship before the craft was split in two by a larger explosion. Just then the com erupted with noise. People were panicking.

"What the h**l is going on out there?" Thomas yelled into the com.

"NOT SURE," Jackson yelled back through the com," Wait."

"What?" Thomas asked impulsively.

"ALL UNITS TURN AROUND AND RETURN TO THE SHIP," the General yelled," I'M ORDERING A FULL RETREAT! STATUS UPGRADED TO NOVEMBER CONTINGENCY!"

That wasn't good. November Contingency was only active when a hostile super weapon was around. Thomas soon found out why it was activated. Nearby, a slipspace rupture had opened up and what came out was no ship. What came out was a massive beam of energy that narrowly missed Thomas' fighter and tore three of the Arbiter's ships in half.

"ASH, THOMAS," came a familiar voice through the com.

Ash piped up then.

"MAY, IS THAT YOU?" he yelled into the com.

"YEAH, BUT THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT NOW! CHECK YOUR TAIL!"

The boy did. What he saw was a massive fighter craft of unknown design. It fired at them and Thomas only barely dodged in time.

"WHAT THE H**L?" Thomas yelled.

"BOGEY ON OUR SIX," Ash yelled," SHAKE HIM OFF!"

Ash turned the turret and fired at the thing. Thomas put all possible speed into the engines and swerved left toward the Spirit of Fire.

"THIS IS THOMAS TO SPIRIT OF FIRE, COME IN GENERAL," Thomas yelled into the com.

"What is it soldier?" Jackson asked.

"We have a tango on our six, and from the looks of it, our weapons have no effect," Thomas explained.

That was an understatement. The shields on the thing were causing the bullets to 'return to sender.'

"Roger that," Jackson replied," You might want to move out of the way then; the Forerunners are going to send a laser your way to take it out."

Thomas swerved fast to dodge the laser as it fired. When it passed them, it impacted with the hostile craft and caused it to explode. One of the pieces flew out of the explosion and hit Thomas' Longsword in the wingtip. The Spartan lost control of the ship, and it started to tumble away from their allies. The com crackled and sparked as it was brought out of commission, and the turret on top lost power. The radar went offline too.

"WERE BLIND," Thomas yelled," HANG ON KID! THIS IS GONNA GET BUMPY!"

**CHAPTER 52**

Jackson, May, and the crew watched in horror as Thomas lost control of his ship. May grabbed a headset and started yelling into the microphone.

"ASH, THOMAS, COME IN," she yelled," GUYS, DO YOU HEAR ME? SAY SOMETHING!"

There was no response.

"ASH!"

Still nothing. She broke down in tears. Jackson watched helplessly as Thomas' Longsword continued to tumble away. Another beam broke out of slipspace and cut across their view of the fighter. When the beam disappeared, they were gone. A female officer gasped.

A male yelled," D****T," and slammed his fist onto his control panel.

The beam reached one of the Arbiter's super carriers and cut it down the middle from front to back.

"Order the retreat," Jackson growled.

"But sir," an officer protested," what about…."

"DON'T TALK BACK TO ME SOLDIER," Jackson yelled," ORDER THE RETREAT! We'll send out a Spartan team for search and rescue later."

The officer nodded and walked off, however hesitant. May continued crying.

'Poor girl,' Jackson thought.

The ship lurched as it turned and jumped into slipspace, followed by the rest of the small fleet. No enemy ships followed. The Arbiter and his forces did.

"Casualty report," Jackson growled, knowing the results weren't good.

"Fifty percent of our ships were destroyed," one of the officers solemnly reported," Thirty percent were damaged. The Arbiter reported seventy percent losses before the jump to slipspace, and I'd say losing a legendary teenager and a Spartan counts as a whole ten percent."

Jackson sighed; things were getting worse by the minute.

"What about that beam?" Jackson asked.

"It entered the system via slipspace," a female officer replied," It came from outside the system."

Jackson sighed again, louder this time. In the corner, May was still crying. Some officers were mourning or having fits of rage. Alex walked in, and he seemed angry. He must have heard the news.

"FIRST A BATTLE THAT NO ONE TELLS ME ABOUT AND NOW TWO OF OUR MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE MISSING," he yelled," YOU'VE LOST YOUR TOUCH GENERAL! THE CREW IS FALLING APART, AND IT'S YOUR FAULT!"

"MY FAULT?" he started to retaliate," IT WAS THE BRUTES WHO STARTED THIS WAR!"

"YOU LET THEM WIN THAT FIGHT!"

"NO I DIDN'T! I tried my hardest. YOU SAW THEIR NEW WEAPON IN ACTION! HOW COULD IT BE MY FAULT? THERES NOTHING I COULD HAVE DONE!"

"THAT'S NO EXCUSE! You know what? I resign. I'll see you in h**l general."

He started to walk away but…," You take another step soldier, and I'll shoot you."

He wasn't joking. He was aiming a Shotgun at the Spartan.

"DO IT, I DARE YOU!" Gunner walked up behind Alex and knocked him out after he said that.

"Sorry about that," he addressed the crew," He has emotional problems."

"No kidding," the General said.

**CHAPTER 53 (poetic)**

_Through a dark nebula a ship travels._

_Sad and dark is the aura around it._

_Sorrowful, sad is the crew of this craft._

_The Spirit of Fire, damaged stern to aft._

_The crew sees no hope for all hope seems lost._

_Two of their heroes lost in the stars._

_On the bridge, her captain screams._

_His rage is apparent._

_At the head of the bridge, by a viewport there stands,_

_A girl in tears, her hair in messy strands._

_She cries. She sobs, for all hope seems lost._

_Behind her, the crew mourns, sorry about failing._

_Their job was now failed, their mission, incomplete._

_All are saddened. All are without hope._

_Few are near insanity, and few can barely cope._

_The soldiers mourn the defeat._

_They never touched the ground with their feet._

_Ordered to turn around almost as soon as they launch,_

_It seemed they were defeated before they even started to fight._

_Now, no one could withstand the stress of this plight._

_The girl weeps. The commander continues his fit of rage._

_The crew and soldiers feel bad for their loss._

_For girl and crew the situation seems dire._

_That is the state of the Spirit of Fire._

_(Soldier on the UNSCS Spirit of Fire)_

May put down the copy of the poem one of the soldiers had written. It wasn't helping her mood. She collapsed on her bed and started crying again. She heard the door chime and slide open and turned her head to see Samus.

"Go away," was all the girl could say.

The warrior didn't leave. Instead, she approached the weeping girl.

"May I…," she started but was interrupted.

"GO AWAY," May said again, screaming this time.

Samus stopped in her tracks. The girl was taking this extremely hard, harder than anyone else on the ship.

"May, are you ok?" the warrior asked her apprentice.

"No. just leave me alone," was the response.

"Why are you taking this so hard?" Samus asked," No one is nearly as upset as you."

The girl cried harder.

"What's wrong?" Samus asked.

"I…I can't say it," the girl sobbed.

"Say what?" Samus asked.

"I…I…," May tried to say something but broke down in tears.

Samus started to have an idea what was bothering the girl.

"Is it Ash?" she asked.

The girl froze and her face was filled with surprise. Right on the mark, Samus had guessed right. She was about to say something else when…

"Rescue team report to the hangar." The General was ready to launch the rescue mission.

"I have to go I'll…," May cut her off.

"If it's a rescue for him, I'm going," she said.

Samus nodded and said," Get your things."

**CHAPTER 54**

May and Samus arrived in the starboard hangar to see the rest of the rescue team prepped and ready to go. The ships they would use were Samus' Gunship and a Sunflare Class Combat Shuttle. May and Samus triggered their suits and approached the group.

"Good, you're here," the General said.

Then he saw May.

"She goin' with you?" he asked.

Samus nodded.

"Ok," he said," Listen up team. You are going to check their last known coordinates and look for clues. Try and find a trail. I know for a fact that they're alive. Thomas hasn't let me down before. Find and follow their trail and bring them back. I want this to be without issue so be quick. Both ships are equipped with faster-than-light travel tech and heavy weaponry. You will likely encounter resistance out there considering the location at which they disappeared. Find the trail, get on it, shake off pursuers, and bring them back alive. That is the basic mission. DON'T COME BACK WITHOUT THEM! Good luck. DISMISSED!"

The Chief, Alex, Gunner, and Kelly boarded the shuttle. Samus and May got in the gunship. The com chimed up.

"This is control, you have permission to launch," came the deck officer's voice.

They launched without another word.

**CHAPTER 55**

Jackson walked back to the bridge in silence. His crew reported an escape attempt by the Sith Assassin that was in the brig. The creep was shot. His second in command had informed him that reinforcements were not going to be coming. They were all in hiding as well. Forced to retreat into a nebula, they now have to remain in it to keep from being found. The rescue team was taking a risk by leaving the nebula. They were headed to the location of their previous engagement against the enemy. Some survivors might be out there including Thomas and Ash. The odds were slim however. Finding them would be like finding a needle in a haystack. There was also the issue with hostiles being in the area. The combat shuttle the rescue team was using was equipped with a jamming device, but that could fail at any moment. No one felt like sending some of the most important people on the ship into hostile territory to carry out a near-hopeless rescue. ONI would disagree with deploying Spartans to carry out rescue missions. The Galactic Federation felt bad about sending Samus out there too. Jackson also didn't like taking the risk of breaking his promise to Norman, May's father. He might be dead, but that's no excuse to break a promise. If anything, it's all the more reason to keep that promise. This was gonna be h**l, and Jackson knew it. However, he did have a feeling that there was some hope left for them. Something was coming. He didn't know what, but he did know that it would probably be decisive for the war.

**CHAPTER 56 (back to Ash and Thomas)**

"Kid, are you ok?" Thomas asked the boy.

"Not sure," came the response," I'm having a problem with the turret control system though."

"The turrets are fried," the Spartan explained," and we've lost coms. We're drifting out here."

"I'll check the engines," Ash said, and he walked to the back.

A second later he said," They seem to be working. The hyperdrive is good to go too."

"Ok," Thomas said," Get back up here."

"Any idea where the Spirit of Fire is?" Ash asked.

"They retreated with all of the other survivors," Thomas explained," The battle wasn't going to well. I have no idea where they went. I do know one thing however; we shouldn't stay here."

"Agreed," the boy said," Where should we go?"

"I think I know. I have a friend, Tyber Zann, who might be able to help us," the Spartan continued," I saved him once. He owes me a favor. He used to be a crime lord, but he turned his crime network into a group of secret military forces in service of the New Republic government. He can get away with anything that will have positive effects on the future of the New Republic and its allies."

"Sounds good enough for me," Ash said," but what about the com?"

"He and his forces will recognize my ship instantly," the Spartan continued," He'll know it's me and come over right away. I always let them dock without hesitation. Normally, I'd use the com, but they'll understand if the com is down. You know, they were called the Zann Consortium. I wonder if they changed their name."

"Only one way to find out," Ash decided," Punch in the coordinates. I'll prep the hyperdrive."

"Got it," Thomas replied, and he started preparations.

**CHAPTER 57(with Tyber Zann and his second in command Urai)**

"Urai, are those coordinates punched in?" the military leader asked.

"Yes Tyber. We are ready," the military leader's Talortai friend responded.

Tyber Zann, a human male, was the leader of the New Republic's secret military service, the Zann Consortium. Urai Fen, a male Talortai and Tyber Zann's long time friend, was Tyber's second in command. Urai took on the form of a massive humanoid avian and carried two massive blades for slicing his enemies. Tyber and Urai were on a mission to collect some sensitive material and deliver it to a member of UNSC Leadership. The minimum rank of the recipient had to be Five-Star General. They had just retrieved the data and were ready to go.

"Give the order to jump," Tyber instructed his friend.

Urai was about to give the order, but he sensed something just then. Members of his race were always born with a natural Force Sensitivity. Urai's was acting up. Tyber noticed his friend's sudden but subtle reaction.

"You alright Urai?" the man asked.

"I sense something coming," The humanoid avian replied.

Tyber took a moment to process this, but then he knew exactly what to do.

"ABORT THE JUMP," he yelled at the crew.

The bridge of his ship, an Aggressor Class Destroyer called: the Merciless, suddenly burst into a mass of commotion.

"CHARGE THE MAIN CANNONS," Tyber yelled at the crew, louder than his last order.

Aggressor Class Destroyers were armed with two massive cannons aiming out the bow of the ship. One cannon fires a massive ball of plasma for every discharge while the other fires a massive ball of electromagnetic energy. A humming resounded throughout the ship as the cannons charged.

"SIR," one of the officers on the bridge piped up," one ship coming out of hyperspace, small, fighter-class."

"Show me," Tyber ordered.

"Magnifying," the officer said and he triggered the zoom function on the ship cameras. When he zoomed in, Tyber had a look of surprise on his face.

"Sir," the officer piped up again," It's a modified Longsword fighter, and its suffered heavy damage."

"SHUT DOWN THE CANNONS AND OPEN UP A COM CHANNEL," Tyber yelled at the crew.

Once again, the bridge became a loud place of commotion.

"Sir, scans indicate that their com system is disabled," an officer chimed in," It was disabled through combat damage."

"Get a tractor beam on that ship NOW," Tyber ordered the crew.

"YES SIR!" The crew got to work. Slowly, but surely, the small craft started drifting towards the starboard hangar of the Merciless.

"Urai, come with me," Tyber spoke up once again," Commander, dock that ship and get us into hyperspace."

"Yes sir," the commander replied in compliance.

Tyber and Urai left the bridge and started talking about the current situation.

"Tyber, you're acting very strange," Urai said, worried about his friend," Are you alright?"

"I'm fine Urai, It's the Longsword's occupants I'm worried about. One of them is an old friend. Remember Thomas?" Tyber said.

"I remember him. He saved your life. You still owe him. Not to mention, he helped you change your ways."

"Yes old friend," the former crime lord continued," And now, I think it's time to return the favor."

They walked through the last door to the hangar to see the damaged Longsword landing right then and there. They approached the craft as the boarding ramp lowered. Just as Tyber had suspected, it was the Spartan, Thomas. From behind him came a boy with raven hair who seemed to be in his late teens.

"Thomas, my old friend," Tyber welcomed as he approached the Spartan and shook his hand," Welcome to the Merciless. It's a nice ship isn't it?"

"It is," the Spartan replied," It's good to see you again."

Just then, Urai walked up behind Tyber.

"Urai," Thomas said, happy to see another one of is good friends," How have you been?"

"I've been well. Things have improved since your last visit. You've had a great and positive effect on Tyber," the humanoid avian replied."

"Still working for this scoundrel?" Thomas joked as he jerked a thumb at Tyber.

They all laughed.

"Who's the kid?" Zann asked as he pointed at the raven haired teen walking up to them.

"This is Ash," Thomas began to explain," We were separated from the rest of our force."

"So I've heard," the Consortium's leader said," We received news of a burst transmission sent out by the Spirit of Fire before contact was lost. A casualty report was in the message. Among the casualties were you and Ash listed as MIA."

"I'm sure," Thomas spoke again," We suffered some damage and lost our com system. The turrets on my fighter were fried and we lost contact with our forces. I'm pretty sure someone on the Spirit of Fire is very worried about this kid."

He said the last part as he pointed at Ash.

"Is that so?" Urai spoke up.

"Yeah," Thomas continued to explain," So, I told Ash about you guys, and he agreed to coming to you for help. He's rather anxious to get back to the Spirit of Fire. Only thing is, we don't know where it is."

"We do," Tyber said, surprising the boy and the Spartan," Our scouts reported sighting it in a dark nebula not far from here, near the last place it engaged the enemy. It was accompanied by a massive fleet of damaged vessels. It looks like they all took a beating."

"The enemy apparently has a new weapon," Thomas started again," It has the ability to fire a massive beam of energy through slipspace from the looks of it."

"I heard rumors about such a weapon," Urai said," I sent a scout team to investigate. They should be arriving soon."

"Urai, you never cease to amaze me," Tyber laughed.

Thomas smiled. It was good to see that Tyber still had his comical side.

"There they are," Urai said as he pointed at three ships entering the hangar.

They fighters were Starviper Class Assault Vehicles. A pilot jumped from the cockpit of the nearest ship to land and ran over to the group.

"Sir," the pilot started, directing it at Urai," Rumor is confirmed to be true. Here are the coordinates of the device."

He handed a datapad to Urai and ran off to his wingmen.

"Looks like we'll need to take it out," Urai stated.

"I think I know what we'll do," Tyber started," I'll contact my primary fleet and have them send a division to take out the weapon. The rest will meet us in the nebula where the Spirit of Fire is. It's time to return the favor my friend."

"Finally," the boy said, speaking for the first time since landing on the Merciless.

"What about my fighter?" Thomas asked.

"I'll have my men get to work on repairs," Tyber explained," I'll even have them upgrade it a bit."

"Thanks," Thomas said happily.

"I have some guest rooms prepared. I'll send word ahead. Go to Break Room 12 on Deck 7. They'll open it for you and give you the key," Tyber said.

"I'll escort you there," Urai offered.

"Thanks guys," Thomas thanked again.

Then, he, Ash, and Urai left for the room. Tyber turned to the mechanic team closest to him and had them start repairing and upgrading Thomas' Longsword.

**CHAPTER 58(back with the General and May)**

Jackson walked down the hall to the hangar with the Chief and May in tow. They were all silent. The search and rescue had failed. There was no sign of Thomas, Ash, or the fighter they disappeared with. Jackson was enraged. They walked through the last door to the hangar when they heard someone running up behind them. Jackson turned to see a soldier running up to him with a huge smile on his face.

"SIR," the soldier yelled," SIR! Some ships have just arrived. They're from the Zann Consortium. We have help. There's more good news too, but I think I'm gonna leave it a surprise. A shuttle is on its way from the Merciless as we speak."

Jackson was speechless. The look of surprise on his face couldn't be rivaled by May's look of surprise. Just then, a Lambda Class Shuttle entered the hangar, folded its wings upward, and landed. The boarding ramp lowered and, Jackson and May watched intently. They didn't believe who stepped out. First came Tyber Zann and his Talortai friend and second in command. Then out stepped a Spartan. Thomas was back. The last one to step out was the one that made May burst into tears. Ash was back. She ran up to him and embraced him tightly.

"Miss me?" he asked her.

"A lot," she replied. Jackson approached and just stared.

"How the h**l did you survive?" the man asked.

"It was actually really easy," Thomas started to explain," See, our com system was disabled due to all the damage it took in the battle. Our turrets were fried too. Our engines and hyperdrive however, were intact. We didn't know where you guys were. We regained control of the ship and realized that you guys had retreated. I remembered my old friend Tyber Zann then. I we made the farthest jump we could without tearing ourselves apart in hyperspace. When we exited hyperspace, we saw the Merciless. They took us in with a tractor beam and we spoke with Tyber and Urai there. We found out where the enemy's new super weapon is and sent a force at it to take it out. The rest of Tyber's first fleet came here. I'm not sure it should be called a fleet though."

"OK, one, wow, two, why shouldn't it be called a fleet?" Jackson said in a surprised manner.

"Well, look at the size of the force we brought," Thomas laughed.

Jackson looked through the hangar shield to see a massive armada of Zann Consortium craft ready for battle. Tyber then spoke," We are ready for battle General."

"Good to have you aboard," Jackson said happily to Tyber and Urai.

Just then, the door opened and a little yellow rodent walked through. Pikachu looked up, saw his master, and yelled in joy. He ran up to the boy and hopped up into his arms.

"Hey buddy," Ash greeted the creature. It rubbed its cheek against his and cooed affectionately.

"Glad to see were all back together again," someone said as they walked up to the group.

They turned to see Alex.

"Who are they?" he queried as he pointed at Tyber and Urai.

"This is Tyber Zann," Jackson said," He's one of my best friends and leader of the Zann Consortium. The humanoid avian is a Talortai named Urai Fen. He prefers the honorable path and is Tyber's best friend and second in command."

"Pleasure to meet you," Urai said to Alex as he reached out to shake his hand.

"The pleasure is mine," Alex stated as he shook the avian's hand.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Tyber yelled making everyone jump.

He pulled out a data chip and reached out to hand it to Jackson.

"I'm supposed to give this to a high ranking member of the UNSC. They have to be Five-Star General or higher, and you match the requirements to be the recipient. It's sensitive data, and it must reach the UNSC's central command," the man explained.

"I'll make sure it gets there," Jackson said, and he took the data chip and put it in his pack.

Thomas looked over at Ash and May to see them still hugging.

"Looks like you were right Alex," Thomas laughed.

Alex looked over to see what he was talking about and laughed.

"TOLD YA," he yelled," YOU OWE ME FIVE BUCKS! Now pay up."

Everyone laughed. Thomas groaned and handed him a five. The groaning even earned a laugh from a certain reptilian creature that had walked up to the group just moments ago. Jackson turned and saw Beremund smiling. Jackson returned the smiled and turned back to the conversation.

"So what now?" he asked Tyber.

"We wait for word from the group that went out to take out the super weapon. When they arrive, they'll tell us. That's when we should attack the enemy once again. You attacked this area once already so they have been weakened. That'll give us an advantage. Thomas' fighter is being repaired and upgraded. It'll be ready before the attack," the man explained.

"Sounds good enough to me," Jackson said," ALRIGHT PEOPLE LETS MOVE, WE HAVE AN ATTACK TO CARRY OUT!"

Everyone in the hangar started working. Some people went to com stations to spread the word about the attack preparations. The General could tell that it would be a long day.

**CHAPTER 59**

Samus was walking toward May's quarters. She had heard earlier that Ash was back, but she needed to see it to believe it. She was approaching the door to her apprentice's room when the door opened and both May and Ash walked out. Samus couldn't believe her eyes. The boy was back. He seemed as healthy as ever. Just then, a humanoid avian walked past her. This surprised her. The being was similar to the Chozo, the makers of her armor, and she had never seen him around here before.

"Excuse me," she said to the avian creature.

It turned to face her.

"Who are you?" she asked it.

"I am Urai Fen, friend of Tyber Zann who is leader of the Zann Consortium. I am his second in command. We brought an armada to assist you all," he explained in great detail," Spartan Thomas is a friend of ours. It's because of him that we switched from underground crime network to secret military force of the New Republic. It's because of him we are here. Be sure to thank him. He deserves credit for the successful arrival of reinforcements."

Samus was dumbstruck. This was new to her. A former crime organization was here with an armada to help out. What's more was that this creature was friends with the Spartan Thomas.

"What the…," she said in surprise.

"It's ok to be surprised," the avian stated," News of this predicament startled me. I'm glad I'm here to help."

Samus took a moment to think it through.

Then she said," Well I'm glad to have more allies along for the ride."

**CHAPTER 60**

Jackson was in his Spartan General Uniform and sitting at the head of the briefing table. Important members of the makeshift fleet's leadership and elite forces were there. Not to mention, a couple youths and a yellow rodent. They included Tyber Zann, Urai Fen, Master Chief, Alex, Gunner, Thomas, Kelly, Samus, Ash, May, Pikachu, Arbiter, and some representatives from the New Republic and the UNSC. Among the UNSC representatives was Lord Hood. The briefing room was large, and not to mention at the center of the Spirit of Fire. Everyone was anxious. This would be a turning point in the war based on the size of the enemy operation they were trying to halt.

"Well, it looks another opportunity has arisen," the General started," I intend to take advantage. Any objections?" No one spoke up.

"Ok then," he continued," The enemy operation is located on the planet Eridanus 13." He pulled up a holographic map of the planet.

"The enemy operation is centered around the Northern Hemisphere. This provides us with an opportunity. The Southern Hemisphere will be facing our direction soon. We want to hit them while their ground based guns are not available to them. The enemy fleet is guarding three Heavy Defense Stations. These orbital structures are a problem. However, the arrival of Tyber and a large portion of his best fleet provides us with an opportunity. We'll drop out of light speed just outside of firing range of the enemy stations. The Aggressor Class Destroyers are capable of hitting those stations at that range. Tyber has agreed to help us by first taking out the shields of the center stations. He won't be able to destroy it without help though. Those things are to large even for Aggressors to destroy them."

He activated the zoom feature on the hologram to zoom in on the center defense platform.

"This is our target," he continued," this station is heavily shielded and heavily armed. We have to stay out of its range until Tyber's Aggressors break its shields."

He highlighted three points on the station's hull.

"After Tyber breaks the shields, our fighters and bombers will fly in and hit these targets. It's a risk we have to take. We have to reach the surface. A large portion of the enemy fleet has apparently dispersed to other locations across the sector. We expect them to come running when word of our attack reaches them."

He switched the view over to a holographic replica of their own fleet in a specific formation and pressed on.

"Three Kedalbe Class Battleships will break off on each side and guard our flanks and rear. The Agressors will create a light ship screen that puts the center defense station just in their firing range. The rest of our ships will move in to strengthen that ship screen. Fighter squadrons have been assigned to defending this formation. Even after the shields on the station break, I want Tyber's Aggressors to keep firing. The Spirit of Fire will serve as a com hub and be stationed between the ship screen and our rear defenses. We have reinforcements en route as well. The New Republic informs us that three Heavy Mon Calamari Cruisers will exit hyperspace just above our battle formation. Now, back to the station."

He switched the view back to the center defense platform.

"The fighters will only open the hull so we can fire straight into the core. When the hull is breached enough, the ship screen will break apart and maneuver to engage the mobile defenders. The Spirit of Fire will switch roles then. It will move up and use its MAC guns to strike the final blow on the enemy station. Then we deploy our troops through that hole that the station's destruction opens. When they reach ground, we should have taken out most of the enemy's ships. That's when we will leave the range of the planet's ground based guns. We'll wait for word from our ground troops before entering battle again. When we receive word, the planetary guns should all be captured or destroyed. We need control of some of them though so I want the Chief down there to carry out precision combat work to avoid damaging the guns he intends to capture. He's leading the ground force. His Spartans will be joining him along with Samus and two…special teenagers."

He gestured towards Ash and May.

"Not to mention their yellow companion."

He then gestured to the yellow rodent on the raven haired boy's shoulder.

"Now the com stations on the planet are a priority. They are how you'll get word to us Chief. And remember to sabotage the enemy's shields and AA defenses. See if you can get some of their Scarabs too. Your force is small compared to what we'll send down once you're done with your end of the mission."

He switched off the holo-projector.

"Good luck people. Godspeed."

He ended the briefing with a crisp salute which everyone returned. Then, they all left to carry out final preparations.

**CHAPTER 61 (before the battle)**

The com station was silent. They were waiting for word from Tyber's forces of their arrival at the super weapon site. Jackson, Chief, Arbiter, and the com officer were gathered around the station waiting.

"When do you think they'll get there?" the Arbiter asked.

"We can only hope they get there at all," Jackson replied solemnly.

"There was never much hope sir," the Chief said.

"Just a fool's hope," the General finished.

"Sir," the com officer spoke up," transmission incoming from allied assault force. They've arrived."

"ALRIGHT PEOPLE," Jackson raised his voice to the crew," LET'S GET THIS DONE RIGHT! INITIATE THE ATTACK!"

"Slipspace drive charged," the navigation officer chimed in," All ships report charged and synched up. Jumping in 5…4…3…2…1…JUMP!"

With that the ship shook and the armada jumped to light speed."

**CHAPTER 62 (So It Begins)**

"Looks like it's time," Thomas said to his gunners," Ready Ash?"

"You know it," came the kid's response.

However, Thomas' Longsword had been upgraded and now had two sets of synchronized turrets. That meant another gunner. Guess who .

"Ready May?" the boy asked his friend.

"Ready," came the simple response.

"Ok people," came the dock officer's voice on the com," all units prepare to launch.

Exiting slipspace in 5…4…3…2…1…exiting."

The darkness of slipspace reverted back to being a vast starscape.

"ALL UNITS LAUNCH," the officer yelled. With that, Thomas punched the throttle and they accelerated with plenty of other fighters into space. Thomas veered the ship toward the oncoming enemy fighters and accelerated.

"Let's do this," Thomas said," COME ON!" The guns opened fire and the battle began. Thomas veered left to avoid a collision and Ash took him out with the lower turret. A dive downward presented May with two opportunities. She took em'. Thomas fired his own guns and took out two hostile Seraphs.

"Thomas, two tangos on your six," came Alex's voice on the com.

"Roger that," the Spartan Medic replied.

Ash overheard and took out the pursuers. A fighter flew by and exploded next to them. It was an allied fighter. First casualty of the battle. Thomas frowned. This would still be a costly fight. His thought was cut short by hostile fire. The enemy only hit Thomas' new shields. The shields literally caused the energy to bounce back at the enemy. The hostile fighter that fired on their Longsword seemed to flash as its shields went down. Thomas swerved up and over to take the shot. Bingo, another enemy down. He swerved around and the turrets flared to life. Ash and May had scored another kill. An enemy fighter blew up thirty meters to Thomas' right. He swerved back left and fired. Three more enemies were out of the fight….permanently. Just then, something clanged on the hull. The shields were still up so Thomas had no idea why something was on them. All the same, he barrel rolled five times to shake it off. It worked, the rear cam showed a sabotage droid becoming more distant. It had been cooked by the engines. Three more allied fighters exploded fifty meters above him and at least thirty more hostiles flew through the debris. Then, three gunboat Phantoms flew in behind them.

"Uh Spirit, Thomas, you have hostiles inbound and they're packing some heavy firepower," he said into the com.

"Roger Thomas, we'll take care of em', thanks," came the response.

"I hope they catch those freaks," Ash yelled up," the Spirit has about had it."

"They'll get em' kid, and I'm hoping you're wrong about the Spirit's condition," Thomas replied.

**CHAPTER 63**

"Sir, Tyber reports that the station's shield is at twenty-five percent," the com officer told the General.

"MAC stations report charged and loaded," the weapons officer chimed in.

"Alright people, let's do this right," Jackson spoke up," I wanna' be home for dinner."

"Hostile shields at five percent," the com officer reported.

"Send the fighters," Jackson ordered.

The Commander responded with a salute and sent the order. Five massive allied squadrons appeared in the viewport headed for the enemy station. One of the squadrons was comprised of one of Tyber's personal favorites: Starviper Attack Platforms, a Mandalorian Combat Fighter design. The basic design had existed for millennia and had been improved upon over the centuries. The fighters moved in at great speed, the Starvipers leading.

"Wait for it," Jackson spoke slowly," Wait for it."

It was a few more seconds.

As soon as the fighters were in range he yelled," FIRE," and the com officer sent an order that resulted in the five squadrons firing all of their weapons at the same time. The result was a large amount of massive holes appearing in the hull of the hostile defense station.

"Now, fire MAC guns," the General yelled.

The ship shuddered and five streaks headed toward the hostile station. It exploded beautifully. The crew cheered in response to a successful first phase. Now it was time to strike.

"Launch the strike team, order Thomas to follow them in," Jackson yelled out.

The crew got back to work.

"Sir, hostile warships inbound," the sensor station officer reported.

"Fire at will," the General spoke a bit evilly.

The entire allied armada opened fire with all weapons, the MAC guns fired and caused the ship to shudder. A small group of shuttles, fighters, and landing craft moved toward the planet. Among the ships were base deployment vessels. Thomas' Longsword flew in and joined the group. They flew through the gap in the enemy defenses unopposed.

"They've breached atmosphere sir," and officer spoke up," It seems they weren't detected."

"Break off the attack," the General ordered," the planetary guns will be able to fire on us soon. It's up to the strike team now."

The fleet broke off the attack and retreated to light speed.

**CHAPTER 64**

Gunner's teeth chattered as his pod rumbled in the atmosphere. It was getting very hot and uncomfortable. The sudden jolt cause by the chute deploying made it even worse. He looked down through the viewport to see the ground fast approaching.

'This is gonna hurt,' he thought to himself.

It did. The pod landed hard and loud, digging into the ground a bit. Gunner's legs ached from the force of the impact. He noticed the beeping of the pressure sensor as it indicated that the atmosphere was safe. The pressure seals hissed as the pod's hatch flew away to smash into a nearby tree nearly flattening Kelly's pod.

"Watch it," she yelled over.

"Sorry," Gunner said as he climbed out," Can't help if the pod lands and opens like that."

The female Spartan just growled at him.

"Lock it down, both of you," came the Chief's voice.

He walked out into the clearing followed closely by Thomas, Ash, May, Pikachu, Urai, Alex, and a small team of ODST troopers, also known as 'Helljumpers'.

"Looks like we're all here," Urai stated.

"My Longsword is well hidden," Thomas said," We'll have a way to evac no matter how the mission goes. It has a hyperdrive after all."

Suddenly, a rustling sound came from the opposite side of the clearing. The only one to detect it was the yellow mouse whose ears perked up.

"Pika," it yelled as it pointed toward the source of the sound.

All heads turned in that direction. The Chief raised his rifle. The rustling stopped for a moment. Then a strange growling emitted from that direction. The anxiety in the group was increasing. Kelly and Gunner took aim too. Thomas watched closely and stood his ground to protect the kids. Suddenly, Samus rolled out tussling with an indigenous carnivore. A large reptilian, similar to the Moorwen, but much smaller, was attempting to make a meal out of Samus. Of course, that failed when she shoved her arm cannon in its mouth and fired a charged blast. The thing died and went limp. She threw it back into the brush as it died. The Chief lowered his weapon and relaxed as did everyone else. Samus was breathing heavily from the combat.

"There were three of those things you know," she told the group," remind me to activate the sonic repellant before we get moving."

"Dually noted," Thomas laughed.

Their troubles there weren't over though.

"Piiikaaaa," the yellow rodent growled as its cheeks started sparking.

Everyone turned to where Pikachu was staring intently. The same brush that Samus came through was rustling again. This time though, the thing that came out was a Moorwen.

"SCATTER," the Chief yelled as it pounced.

Everyone ran in opposite directions to avoid the creature, all but Pikachu. The little critter jumped up into the air and released a massive bolt of electrical energy at the Moorwen. It roared in pain. Kelly turned and started firing her battle rifle. Thomas did the same. Gunner lunged at the creature and impacted its right shoulder plate with his left shoulder. It roared again, and then swung its tail at him. It struck his shields and knocked him down. Of course, he had grabbed a grenade and pulled the pin by then. The grenade flew up, arched over, and then fell towards the Moorwen's head. It hit, bounced, and detonated with a resounding thump. The creature was knocked off of its own feet. The Chief turned and fired a burst of bullets into the things mouth, and it fell, groaned in pain, and died.

"Get that sonic repellant active as soon as possible," the Chief ordered.

"Right away sir," Thomas replied with a worried tone.

**CHAPTER 65**

The team was now on the move. Jackson was feeling like he sent them to their doom though. The planet nearby that his custom team was traversing around was rich with carnivorous beasts and plant life, not to mention the hostile presence above and around them.

"Sir, we're faced with a dilemma," his second in command spoke," You have just sent your best sniper, medic, and fighters into enemy territory and have no way to extract them. What were you thinking?"

"Our best people are down there with two children," a lower ranking officer spoke up," Imagine the crew's lack of faith in you if something happened to any of them. You have just made a huge mistake."

"YOU ALL AGREED TO IT," the General yelled back at the officers around the meeting table," We knew the risks. I knew them all too well," he continued," This war was not my doing, so I have no say in whether I can take such risks or not. You all scold me on this when you agreed on it? You're idiots. I should send you packing for mutiny. This was the least risky method. The most risky would be a head on assault where ,sooner or later, THE ENEMY COULD MAKE US MINCE MEAT WITH THOSE PLANETARY GUNS!"

"I agree," Tyber Zann spoke up," We should just wait. This was the best decision we could make. Our soldiers have no idea what they are doing for the war effort by following their orders here. The enemy operation here posses a huge threat to all major population centers that support us. If we didn't do something, the enemy would take out a vital source of resources and kill billions of civilians."

"If you boys think that's the worst of it then brace yourselves," the General started again," Down on that planet is something that the enemy doesn't want us seeing. I lost over fifty recon teams to find out what it is. They are creating a supertank that could end us all. It is an upgraded Scarab tank."

A wave of mumbling and mild commotion spread throughout the group of officers and other command officials.

"It poses a massive threat," the General continued," I understand that not telling you this seems like a mistake, but my superiors believed it a bad idea to reveal something that would reduce morale among the troops. They deemed it 'sensitive intel'. Now I'm revealing it, and I intend to continue with the battle plan that has been set in motion. If there are any of you who wish to take their leave or have anything to say to oppose my decision, I will certainly not hold it against you."

The room was silent, and no one even cleared there throat or made a gesture to oppose his decision.

"Ok then," he started again," Here are the details. Don't hesitate to speak up if you change your mind about staying. The new Scarab design is double the size of a regular military class Scarab. It has better armor strength and coverage than its counterpart and has about triple the arsenal. Its armament are two plasma beam weapons, four back-mounted turrets compared to the characteristic one, a set of defensive plasma repeater cannon weapons, and two back-mounted weapons capable of firing into space and destroying our ships. It has two more legs than the regular one as well. Among all these upgrades is an energy shield that can be classified as a tier one structure defense shield. Considering the size of this thing, I wouldn't be surprised if people believed it a mobile super fortress."

No one spoke up to leave. Instead, a soldier decided to speak up, and he had determination of all things in his voice.

"Are there any weaknesses that this thing has?" he asked.

"Scans indicate that it is prone to a system failure if hit with a strong enough EMP," the General explained," It is susceptible to MAC Cannon blasts as well from the looks of it. Furthermore, there are ways to immobilize it if the shields are down. A good sniper would be able to get an explosive armor piercing round into the knee joints of some of its legs and render it incapable of movement."

The soldier smirked at his explanation.

"H**l to be on the defensive against it," he started," but a cake walk to take down with a quick offensive attack."

"Exactly," the General said, smiling," It seems that there is a minimal drop in morale from this information."

"You have a loyal crew sir," the soldier said.

At this, everyone in the room stood and snapped a crisp salute to the general. The General smiled at the loyalty they were showing. This was a good moment, one that should be remembered. Everyone knew the risks, and they were taking on the challenge anyway. Bravery is seldom shown in such a way.

"Thank you," the General said," all of you."

He returned the salute.

"Well we won't get anything done standing around," he started again," so let's do what has to be done, and, hopefully, we'll be home for dinner."

Another salute from the surrounding military officials and soldiers came, and then they all went to carry out the final preparations for the battle ahead. The General wished that some faces wouldn't disappear from the crew during this engagement, but it couldn't be prevented. He silently wished them luck and went to make preparations himself.

**CHAPTER 66**

The Chief and his team walked along slowly. They had met up with Alex earlier. He went ahead to scout out the situation. Rustling grabbed Pikachu's attention again, but it wasn't hostile. Their scout had returned.

"Report," The Chief ordered.

"There are several hostiles up ahead; two Wraith tanks are among them. We might have a fight on our hands. On the up side, there is a ship giving the enemy trouble. It's in the water right now. It seems to be equipped with MAC guns and is firing hard on fortified enemy positions," Alex explained," You could say that the enemy has had it except for the fact that they have some kind of plasma beam firing from a position I can't see. It's too well hidden. I suspect a Scarab, probably the one that the General mentioned."

Some of the ODST's looked at each other and appeared to decide on something.

"Sir," one of the ODST's said as he approached the Chief," I volunteer to go with Alex and confirm this."

The Chief seemed to take a moment to decide.

"Approved," he then said," Get it done."

"Yes sir," the ODST replied, and he followed Alex off to their next recon mission.

"Samus," the Chief called.

She ran up to the front.

"What is it Chief?" she asked.

"The Northern approach to the enemy cannon cluster still needs to be scouted out," he explained," Get over there and tell me what you see."

"Got it," She replied and she went into Morph Ball Mode and rolled off in that direction.

"Thomas, I need a radar pad up here now," the Chief ordered.

Thomas ran up with a kind of electronic hand held radar sensor in his hand and offered the device to the Chief.

"Here you go sir," he said.

Master Chief took the radar device and pointed it in the general direction of their targets. The results were rather unsatisfying.

"This isn't good," came the Chief's response to the results," Eyes up, rifles up, and watch those motion trackers."

May activated her Varia Suit and it appeared after a quick flash and energy flow. Ash pulled out a red and white ball.

"Where did you get that?" Kelly asked the boy.

"What, I can't bring a second Pokémon along?" he asked sarcastically.

"Oh ha ha," came Kelly's sarcastic response.

"Lock it down you two," the Chief ordered.

"Pika?" Pikachu questioned as he sensed someone or something approaching.

It was apparently a something because a growling sound came from the area Pikachu was looking in the direction of. The Chief noticed this and raised his rifle, aiming in that direction. One of the ODST's pulled out two SMG's. Another pulled out a DMR. The last two aimed their own assault rifles. May aimed her arm cannon that way too. Ash was completely on alert. The yellow rodent was crackling with electrical energy. The bushes rustled and a distorted figure came out. Active camouflage was apparently being used. It deactivated the camouflage, and the Arbiter took the place of the distorted figure. Everyone relaxed.

"Am I glad to see you," the Chief said.

"Likewise," the Elite leader replied, "I have a cloaked Phantom nearby set up for a remote controlled extraction sortie."

"That explains how you got down here in one piece," one of the ODST's laughed.

"Indeed," the Arbiter replied rather plainly," I've decided to assist you personally.

It's been a while since I last worked with my first Spartan comrade in the field. I do not intend to make that the last."

"That's good to hear Arbiter," the Chief replied," We'll need all the help we can get down here."

"Sir," one of the ODST's spoke up," We've got trouble!"

That was an understatement. A Brute hunter team was headed their way. One was sniffing the air and apparently picking up a scent. The Chief hoped it wasn't them. He looked around to see one of the group members missing. He looked up to see her in the trees. May was getting ready to jump down from her hidden position on the Brute team. You could hear a slight hum as her weapon charged. Then, she leaped down silently behind the Brute in the rear of the team. The cannon fired and the Brute toppled over onto the back of the leader, dead. The leader turned, throwing the body to the side. The worst was to come though. On his back was a modified Brute Shot. It had higher ammo capacity and stronger shots. He pulled it off his back and took a shot at May. For Ash, time seemed to slow down. Everything around him was almost still, the shot narrowly missing May, the Chief firing his first shot, everything. Ash found himself pointing and felt his mouth moving. He was giving an attack order to his buddy, but he couldn't hear himself. The bolt of electrical energy that his companion produced to fry the Brute was slow like everything else. Time seemed to stop for a moment, and then resume very suddenly. Before he knew it, the Brute leader was dead and smoking along with two other members of his team. The other Brutes tried to flee, but they dropped to the ground after several loud bangs were heard from about two-hundred meters east. Several white streaks flowed through where the last of the Brutes were. A sniper rifle was just used to drop the last of the enemy.

"I only know one person who can shoot like that," the Chief said suddenly.

Everyone turned in surprise to the Chief.

"Enlighten us please," the Arbiter said.

The Chief was about to speak when a figure ran out of the bushes and came to a halt. It was a Spartan. The Spartan turned to the Chief, and snapped a quick salute.

"Chief," the Spartan said in a crisp, female voice. It wasn't Kelly.

"Well if it isn't the best sniper I ever had on my team," The Chief laughed.

Everyone looked confused.

"Could you please tell us what's going on sir?" one of the ODST's asked.

"This is perhaps the best sniper I ever had on my team," the Chief said," Her name is Linda."

May was the first to approach the new arrival. She offered her hand for a handshake. Linda returned the gesture.

"I heard a lot about you," May said," You're quite the shot alright."

"The Chief has been known to exaggerate about his allies just a bit," Linda laughed.

"That shooting says otherwise," May said, laughing as well.

Ash smiled at how they were getting along already. The Chief cut them short, however, when he went on full alert and looked to the North. Everyone looked in that direction. A few seconds later, Samus rolled out in Morph Ball Mode. Everyone relaxed.

"Geez, can we ever get a break out here?" one of the ODST's complained.

The Chief gave him a look.

**CHAPTER 67**

The status of the Truth and Reconciliation was rather negative. Repair crews were being brought beyond the call of duty. Humans and Elites alike were exhausted. Orbiting around a hostile planet just outside of the range of enemy planetary guns didn't make anyone feel any better. They had a mission though, and there was no room for failure. The ship had to be prepared for battle when the time came. There were good signs though. Humans and Elites were working together to come up with survival plans and battle plans. That wasn't the half of it. You could see commanders and squad leaders of both species on every deck, trying very hard to fix up the ship. The crew was obviously ready for battle. It was the ship that needed to be fixed up. That wouldn't be a problem with the help of such a crew though. General Jackson was paying a short visit to the Arbiter's flagship to wish the people on board luck. Plus, its broadcasting system allowed him to transmit it to the entire armada flawlessly. He wondered if there was any hope for the enemy. Then, he remembered the enemy defense platforms and the new Super Scarab that was being constructed. He knew that a lot of the faces in this armada would be disappearing. It made him sad, but they knew the risks. They were willing to fight anyway. This was the best he had ever seen in any of his allies. They would need it. They were about to be put to the test. He stepped onto his shuttle, and the boarding ramp closed as the shuttle took off to take him to the Spirit of Fire. He hoped that its previous commanding officer was doing well in retirement.

**CHAPTER 68**

The team walked towards the objective as fast as they could. Urai hadn't spoken the entire time. He seemed disturbed by something. He had that look when they landed. This worried the Chief, but he didn't stop the mission due to something as irrelevant as a mere look. He turned his head back to the area in front of him to see an open space occupied by what looked like a big purple tower with a massive plasma cannon aiming out of the tip.

"Everyone, stop," he ordered.

Everyone did. He looked more carefully at the structure and identified it as one of seven planetary guns to be targeted. It was too far from the center of the enemy base to be the one they were to take over and use on the stations however. He decided to plant a remote charge in the power supply instead. He ordered Kelly to follow him in and for everyone else to wait. He and Kelly ran off. Linda climbed up into a tree to set up for sniping any enemy stragglers.

"This'll be interesting," one of the ODST's commented.

"Shh, let her work," May whispered loudly at him.

Ash chuckled silently. Urai, however, didn't change his facial expression. Samus and Gunner just stood there. Thomas moved up to take his own sniper position. Alex was laughing a bit though. Soon, gunfire was heard down at the site of the planetary gun. The shooting stopped three minutes later, and Kelly and the Chief returned two minutes after that.

"Now that was the most fun I had all day," Kelly laughed.

Everyone but Urai and the Chief joined in.

"We have to keep moving," the Chief said.

Everyone nodded and they all started moving again, staying in the forest and out of sight as they went. It wasn't long before they reached the second cannon. This time, the Chief took Alex and Gunner with him. The battle was only two minutes long. The bomb was planted and they kept moving.

"We're making great progress," Linda stated cheerfully.

They reached the third one soon after. This time though, the cannon was heavily fortified. It seemed that the enemy was now aware of their presence.

"I guess they're on to us now," Samus said. The Chief used hand signals to give everyone orders. Everyone nodded in understanding and compliance. Linda took up a sniper position in the trees. Alex prepared his grenade launcher. Gunner and Kelly prepared to charge in with the Chief. The Arbiter prepared for a stealthy approach. Urai joined in with the Arbiter. The ODST's took up support positions in the rocks nearby. Ash and May prepared to take the back door approach. When everyone was ready, the Chief gave the signal and everyone commenced the plan. As the Arbiter and Urai snuck by, Linda fired and took out the leader with a headshot. The ODST's opened fire to draw the enemy's attention. The Chief then charged with Kelly and Gunner in tow. They opened fire as well. Alex fired off some grenades to bombard the enemy fortifications. May fired to take out some enemies from behind while Ash and Pikachu disabled the back door shield barrier. The enemy faltered within four minutes and the bomb was planted. The next cannon was the one they needed to capture. With it, they would bombard the last three guns and detonate the first three with a detonator form there. They arrived quickly. Linda and the Chief sniped the guards down, and they all ran in. The enemy was waiting for them inside. The Arbiter charged forward in active camouflage and swung his energy sword as he activated it. Three enemy guards fell. The last two were dropped by a barrage of bullets from the Spartans. They ran into the control room and shot all Brutes, Jackals, and Grunts in sight. The Chief took the controls and aimed the gun at the line of cannons that remained to be set for destruction. He held up three fingers for a countdown. One shot from this gun would take out all three of the last guns. Kelly prepped the detonator. The countdown began. When the Chief's last finger fell, the tower shook as the captured cannon fired. Kelly pulled the trigger. All six towers detonated almost at the same time. The Chief ordered everyone to take positions. Kelly and the ODST's stood guard while the rest of the team prepared to destroy the two remaining stations in orbit. They got there just in time. The stations had just entered firing range. The cannon aimed and fired once. The first station was confirmed destroyed. Another shot ended the last one. Mission accomplished. The Chief now had to set a charge to destroy this tower. He did so, and they all ran out. As they got out of range, Kelly pulled the trigger. The tower exploded with a tremendous roar of blue and purple flame. They hurried to capture the enemy com outpost. They got there in record time and fired immediately. All tangos dropped within ten minutes. The area was scared with bullet holes and plasma burns. The Chief ran into the outpost and sent the transmission. It was up to the fleet now.

**CHAPTER 69**

Jackson sat in his office, wondering if the Chief and the other got through. He couldn't help but feel like he made a mistake. Just then, the door burst open. The com officer ran through with a huge smile on his face.

"What is it?" the General asked the man.

"They got through, the assault is a go," came the cheerful reply," the enemy guns and remaining stations are dust now. Jackson stood up, and they ran to the bridge. As soon as they arrived, Jackson started giving orders.

"All units to battle stations, full alert," he yelled," Prep the landing craft and jump to the battle zone!"

The bridge became a mess of activity.

"Send a transmission to the Merciless and the Truth and Reconciliation! Attack is a go! We jump in sixty seconds!"

The timer started as soon as the return transmission came in to confirm readiness. Thirty seconds were left on the clock.

"You think we can do it?" an officer asked.

"I know we can," came the Generals reply.

Ten seconds left.

"All weapons ready," yelled a second officer. Three, two, one, they jumped. Three seconds later, the enemy forces were in view.

"ALL WEAPONS FIRE," Jackson yelled," LAUNCH ALL FIGHTERS!"

The battle commenced as three enemy ships were caught with their shields down and exploded. A swarm of Longswords, Shortswords, Seraphs, Assault Phantoms, Skipray Blastboats, and Starviper Fighters appeared in the viewscreen. The battle had begun.

"MAC GUNS READY," yelled the weapons officer.

"FIRE," Jackson ordered. The ship shook as four MAC Rounds simultaneously fired and streaked toward the enemy. The result was a dead enemy Super Carrier. The Aggressors fired their primary weapons and pelted the enemy with massive plasma and ion rounds. The Kedalbe-Class Battleships opened fire. The Mon Calamari Cruisers wasted no time either.

"SIR," yelled an officer at the sensor station," GRAVATIC ANOMOLY DETECTED! SLIPSPACE RUPTURE DETECTED!"

Just then, the largest Slipspace rupture anyone had ever seen opened up and released what looked like a Forerunner Ship as long as the planet below was wide. The ship exited Slipspace and fired a massive beam through the enemy formation. It deployed massive sentinels and ships to fight the Brutes. The main ship must have been as long as three Super Star Destroyers. It was decimating the enemy with thousands of beams weapons. The battle continued to rage on.

"LAUNCH ALL FORCES," the General ordered," INITIATE ASSAULT!"

Half-a-million landing craft of multiple shapes and sizes started entering sight as they began their approach to the planet. Sentinels and Forerunner landing craft joined them. Firing their weapons as they went, they punched a hole through the enemy's weakened defense screen. The Spirit of Fire shook again as the MAC guns fired to take out a couple of cruisers in the assault force's path. One short but massive explosion later, the lane was clear, and the landing craft and Sentinels started flying through. The Battle was just getting underway though. The enemy apparently had a second com station. Enemy reinforcements started pouring in. Not just Brutes, but Space Pirates as well, then Samus' nemesis, Ridley.

"FIRE ON THAT SPACE DRAGON," the general ordered.

Now all allied vessels were firing at Ridley and the reinforcements.

"SINCE WHEN WERE BRUTES AND SPACE PIRATES ALLIES?" The general wondered rather loudly.

The entire ship was shaking from firing its weapons. Cannons and missiles alike fired at the enemy forces non-stop. The battle was underway.

**CHAPTER 70**

The Chief ran as fast as he could. Most of the strike team had stayed at the enemy com outpost to set up an operation station. The only ones following him were Kelly, Ash, and May. He had told the kids to stay behind, but Ash kept arguing against it. When May found out, she followed.

'This is gonna be a rough fight,' the Chief thought as he remembered what their target was.

"Target up ahead," Kelly yelled back from her position up front.

Sure enough, the enemy Super Scarab was in sight, and firing on something in the ocean that was shooting back. The tracer rounds indicated human origin of whatever was attacking the Scarab and the base around it.

"Looks like someone is already causing trouble for these guys," May yelled up.

The ground started rumbling then. A massive craft the size of a mountain started rising up from where the ocean was. Water poured off of it. Underside gauss weapons charged and fired and shields started flaring up. The thing was bombarding the enemy with rounds of all types. Things were at a whole new level now apparently.

OMG CLIFFHANGER!XD

Now ill bet you guys are wondering why i did this. If you're a member and have any questions, feel free to ask with a PM or just send a plain old review. Ill gladly answer any and all questions as long as they are not hostile, vulgar, inappropriate, or just plain rude or sarcastic. Constructive criticizm only guys. And be nice with giving advice.


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